In To Thin Air
by Evil-Ekat
Summary: Bill comes to the Pines twins, begging for them to make a deal with him before it's too late. But is Bill really what he seems? Dipper and Mabel begin to discover that maybe he is more human than he boasts, as questions of his origins surface. How does the forgotten life of William Cipher come in to play? Is there anything left for him when his past has faded in to thin air?
1. Chapter I

**I was bored, and it just kept calling me. Ekat, Ekat, Ekat, turn us in to a real story Evil-Ekat! This will be my next lil piece after "Reality" is finished. If you've already read the chapter in 100YOM then this is nothing new to you. Hopefully actually publishing this will get those stupid plot bunnies to leave me alone. Well. Here we go.**

**Other genres: Mystery/Supernatural/Romance/Family/Hurt/Comfort/Humor**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls**

* * *

To Mabel Pines, it just felt like one of those days. What one of "those" days exactly felt like was difficult to say the least. It was similar to the final stroke of an artist's paint brush, or the sensation of all absolute calm in the hectic world before all hell boke loose. It gave one the idea that something strange and not of this world was coming. Tension and curiosity filled the air as one waited. And waited. This was a common feeling when it came to Gravity Falls. It was a sixth sense Dipper and Mabel (Along with Stan and Soos if they would admit it.) had developed and honed over the years. The alarm bell that rang in their minds and seemed to say; _Something is going to happen. Something big. And we all know it's definitely attributed to Gravity Falls weirdness. _

It left them restless as they waited for it to happen. What ever that it may be. The twin's first meeting with Gideon, or the rainy day when they had met the most dangerous creature of Gravity Falls. What ever this next trial in their life was going to be, it would come inevitably. When, where, and what would remain a mystery. At least, some of them would. Because the change in their lives would come right about-

"-Now!" Mabel said to herself.

But as no other tourists came through the door, she pouted. It had been a painfully slow day at the Mystery Shack, a grand total of five people had visited today. And one of them was Old Man McGucket, who was more animal than human as per usual. Because of the strange feeling that had plagued her all day, she was counting down every few seconds, expecting someone to barge in to the gift shop, so she could heroically save the day with her grappling hook.

"Right. About. Now!"

Everything remained still. The brunette gave a sigh of disgust. Why did she have to suffer through such boredom? It was tearing her mind to pieces. Stan had banned her from having Candy and Grenda over while she worked after several tourists got in the way of one of their flash make overs, and she had long grown bored of looking at all the trashy things Stan sold in the Shack. Once you had seen one counterfeit unicorn skull, you had seen them all. She flipped through one of the boring magazines hidden behind the counter, uninterested.

Just then, the anticipated tourist walked through the door. Mabel continued to pretend to read the magazine, not wanting to scare away the only possibly interesting thing that had happened all day. She gave the young man a few curious glances between pages.

He was tall with sandy hair, and there was a sort of natural sanguine look to his face. It would have been more evident if he wasn't frowning a little as he inspected the gift shop. There was a hint of darker stubble on his face, only adding to his tired and defeated appearance.

_"Hmmm, maybe a six point five, seven?"_ Mabel wondered to herself, discreetly assigning him on her scale of handsomeness out of ten. _"If only I could tell what colour his eyes were... Just. Turn. Arrh! Just look this way goddammit!"_

"Excuse me sir, is there anything I can help you with?" She asked, hoping to get a glance of what ever colour his eyes were.

The young man turned to her and sighed. Walking a little closer to the counter, she was able to see what colour they were. A bright, solid, and very familiar yellow.

"Actually, there is Shooting Star."

* * *

Stanford Pines was very familiar with what Mabel's scream of absolute terror sounded like. Usually, she reserved it for Gideon. He couldn't blame her, the little creep. And while he would always deny that there was a supernatural side to the twins, he knew better than that. Dipper and Mabel always went on about how they just seemed to know when something was about to happen. And Stan would be lying to himself he said he didn't sense that sooner or later something would strike again.

Even if that day had not been slow on tourists, an all time low for him, the con man would have dropped everything with out a second thought to find out why she had screamed so loudly. Instinctively, his first thought was;

_"Gideon!"_

Followed by the logical;

_"But that's not possible, he's locked up for good."_

So what ever it was must have been just as bad or worse. Or so he thought until he ran in to the gift shop only to see one terrified looking young man being held up by a grappling hook wielding great-niece, and the world's laziest guard-pig.

"Mabel!" He reprimanded, "Don't scream like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"But Grunkle Stan-"

"No but's except his off of the floor!"

"But Stan he's-"

"A valued customer,"

"No he's-"

Dipper ran in to the shack, huffing and puffing.

"Mabel.. why did you-" He froze between struggling breaths, seeing the man being held prisoner on the floor. It took him less time than Mabel to deduce who he was, courtesy of the man's yellow eyes. The younger by five minutes twin yelped and picked up the nearest thing, an eight ball cane, and pointed it at the stranger.

"All right then, who is he exactly?"

Stan rolled his eyes, not betraying his rising panic at the situation. If Dipper, the normally level headed one was acting like this too, then there was an issue. He knew both twins had said something about meeting Bill before, but they had never talked about it again. Not just because of the whole Gideon taking over the Shack thing, but because it was something neither wanted to mention again.

He had caught both of them whispering about something occasionally, and come to think of it. Dipper had flinched as he handed him a dollar bill, and Mabel always stared at his decks of cards as if she could see through them when playing poker. Was there something he had been mising all along?

His eye sight may have been failing, but it was clear as day who was being held prisoner. Stan pretended not to see as Bill mouthed to his great-niece and nephew;

_"Don't tell."_

_"Subtitles never were your forté Cipher." _The old man reflected, _"Then again, what's subtle about a floating corn chip who sounds like a chipmunk mated with that stupid citrus character Mabel was always waxing on about?What was that called again? The irritating lime? The frustrating lemon? Hmm that sounds about right..."_

The twins shared a look, deciding they should lie to Stan.

"He's just been stalking Mabel for the past while. " Dipper explained, "Maybe he's related to Gideon. At this rate, who knows?"

Mabel did that annoyingly cute thing where she batted her eyelashes as if to say that they were completely innocent and how dare he accuse them of lying to their favourite great-uncle in the whole world. Playing the role of the protective father figure, Stan enjoyed chasing the demon off the property with the broom.

"And stay away!" He snarled, throwing the broom like a javelin at the young man.

Bill yelped at the broom actually stuck in to the tree behind him. In a split second, he vanished all together much to Stan's satisfaction. Wiping of his hands, he walked back to the porch where Dipper and Mabel had watched the spectacle. Fixing the twins with the evil eye, he said;

"Next time give me a warning or just say. I'm ok Stan."

For extra measure, he made sure to stomp off, muttering under his breath. What was he going to do with those two instant heart attacks (Just add Bill Cipher) working for him all summer?


	2. Chapter II

**This chapter was really fun to write, I love having an egotistical Bill. The chapter's been extended from the preview in 100YOM as well.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Later that same day, Soos walked down one of the Mystery Shack's halls, heading towards his break room. His shift had ended early that day, a privilege he had not received in many years. Stan had pulled him aside, and had told him to watch the twins for a while as he went out to run some errands. Unpaid of course, but he didn't mind. The two kids had grown on him over the years, easily picking up their friendship where they left off each summer.

"But Mr. Pines, aren't they old enough to be left on their own?" Soos had asked.

"Look Soos," Stan had begun, using the tone he saved for more serious matters, "You think I wouldn't realize that? They're fresh out of highschool and taking grade thirteen here starting in September. But a certain someone just waltzed in to the gift shop today and would have done who knows what with Mabel if she had been caught off guard."

The man-child gasped, and waited for Stan to continue.

"You can crash here for the night, I'll be back some time later tonight. And for god's sake! I don't not pay you for a reason, this conversation never happened."

Puffing out his chest, Soos gave him a sort of strange salute and declared;

"Yes Mr. Pines sir. I won't let them out of my sight!"

The only problem with this, was that he _had _let the twins out of his sight. Given, it wasn't his fault (Handymen needed bathroom breaks too.) but Dipper and Mabel had straight up vanished.

"Dipper? Mabel? Dudes?" He called, his voice eerily echoing through the old building.

The hairs on the back of his neck began to prickle, and he felt as if someone was watching him. He began to take softer steps through the house, easing his weight in so a way to stop the floorboards from creaking. Now, all he could hear was the thunder from the coming storm, and the sound of the Shack's ancient furnace system and pipes.

Soos too was aware of this imminent feeling, a curse he shared with the Pines. But his was more accurate then theirs, it would only be a day or two until this something big happened. Yet he couldn't help but feel just as squashed and nervous, confined to his façade of emotions. What would happen when it all finally snapped?

The man-child became more and more wary as he made his way over to his break room. Was that a mouse skittering under the wainscoting, or his own imagination? Old buildings like these had drafts all the time right? And it made sense that the bare light farther off in the halls was flickering, faulty wiring. Hadn't he helped Stan rewire most of the Shack though?

Cautiously, he placed a hand over the side pocket in his cargo shorts. His stubby fingers wavered over the revolver Stan had insisted he carry on him, and only use in absolutely last resort situations. But what use would it be against a demon?

Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed Soos by the shoulders and covered his mouth. They pulled him in to his old break room. If not for the fact the room was so impossibly cramped, he surly would have shot Dipper or Mabel. He shivered to think at what Stan would have done to him.

"Dudes, as much as I enjoy playing hide and go seek, why are we hiding in here?" He asked, wondering if they could hear his heart racing past his usual façade of friendliness .

"It's the only place with out, him." Mabel quietly sniffed.

"Dude?" He asked, having a feeling he knew where this conversation was going. "Look dudes, belive me when I say Stan is-"

"Stan? What does he have to do with this?" Dipper asked.

In the dim light that came through the cracks around the door, Soos looked at the twins, while they were both pretty much grown up, they looked so scared and young again. Much like their twelve year old selves, unsure in what they were doing.

"Isn't that what you were-"

"Look, we can't spend forever in here. Ever since Gideon summoned Bill, we've been noticing things."

The sinking feeling in the man-child's stomach only confirmed it even more.

"What sort of things?" The handyman wondered, pretending not to know.

"Ever since he said he'd be watching us, he's all over the Shack! The windows, the curtains, even Stan's deck of cards..." Mabel listed.

"Dudes, I though I was the only one who noticed." Soos answered in a whisper. "They've been here since before even I started working here. I never thought anything of it until he said he would be watching us."

"Then what do we do about it?" Dipper asked impatiently.

"Nothing." He answered, his voice loosing it's goofy tune.

"But Soos! There has to be something we can do about it! What if he really can watch us through all those things?!" The female Mystery Twin cried, on the brinks of hysterics.

Crossing his arms in the confined space, Soos firmly told them;

"There is nothing we can do about it. He's been watching long before you two were ever born, and probably will long after."

"But Soos-"

"No buts dudes. I'm not talking about it any more."

With a slightly strained movement, he opened the door and squeezed himself out of the room that was nothing more than pipes.

"And he's in that room too," The man-child informed the twins. "Look at that yellow pipe."

He tried not to feel guilty as the twins gasped in horror and fought to get out of the room.

"W-what are we going to do Dipper?" Mabel stuttered.

"I don't know Mabel, I don't know."

* * *

Still running the register, Mabel nervously looked around the crowd in the gift shop. None of the crowd bore a resemblance to _him _of course, but there was a small figure of him lightly etched in to the scuffed wood on the counter top.

She could easily distract herself for a few minutes, helping out the customers, but she was reminded as the all seeing eye faced her on a one dollar bill or the counter. The young woman shivered as her fingers brushed the shape, leaving a sense of foreboding with her.

As if to only make her more nervous, the tourists all eventually left, leaving her alone in the gift shop. Sure enough, as soon as she turned around for one second, the demon as leaning against one of the displays, staring at her. Mabel whipped out the grappling hook, aiming it at him.

The blond put his hands up in a sign of surrender, but said;

"Can you at least let me speak this time?"

Mabel paused a moment before replying;

"Well... how, about... NO! GRUNKLE STAN THE CREEPY GUY IS BACK!"

It took not five seconds for the old man to burst in to the shop and drag the man by the ear out of the Shack. He would have kicked him off the porch for extra good riddance, but Mabel was inside. Staring down at the dazed blond, Stan wanted to get his point across better.

"Listen here _Cipher. _I do_not _ appreciate you showing up out of no where, I do not like having you _anywhere _near my nice and nephew, and I _especially _do not like you asking Dipper and Mabel to lie for you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He replied somewhat hollowly.

"Don't play stupid Bill, it never suited you."

"No really, I can't think straight. Shooting Star hit me in the head with her grappling hook and now all I hear is this ringing..." He said in a dazed voice,

"Serves you right."

"What?"

"Serves you right!" Stan repeated.

"WHAT?"

"I said, serves you right!"

"No! I still have no idea what you're saying! My head feels-" His eyes became unfocused, and the demon fainted.

Having heard Stan's yelling, Mabel looked out side to see what had happened. Easily keeping up the act, Stan yelled;

"Mabel! What did I tell you about maiming our valued customers with potentially dangerous weapons?!"

"But Grunkle Stan, he's not a valued customer, he's-"

"Ah! What do I say about that?!"

"If you can't hide the body, then don't do it." She glumly recited.

"And?"

"Destroy all the evidence."

"Good girl. Now help me search his pockets. Dressed like that, who knows how much money he has!"

* * *

Later that evening, Bill woke up again, feeling strangely light headed and suspiciously light pocketed. Had Stan actually robbed him while he was at it? Sure enough, his wallet was missing. At least all his money consisted of one dollar bills only, he knew that would annoy the old man. Bill could practically hear him complaining;

_"What?! No twenties? No fifties? Who in their right mind keeps a roll of hundreds of one dollar bills?! Impractical little corn chip."_

At the reminder, he groaned and got to his shaky feet, stumbling around and rubbing his eyes. Once his sight adjusted, he found that he was somewhere in the Gravity Falls woods. Through the trees, the sun was either setting or rising. Hopefully the latter, the forest was already dangerous enough in broad day light.

Of course, it was typical Stan Pines to do something like this, but it didn't leave him any less surprised. At least he knew his way around most of the woods, or at least, he used to. Debating something for a moment, he pulled out a whistle from seemingly no where and blew a shrill note.

All of the gnomes who had been hiding around him or in the vicinity of the sound collapsed on their knees, screaming in pain. It didn't take long for Jeff to appear, ready to lecture whoever had decided to disturb the peace and incur the "wrath" of the gnome army.

Pointing a stubby finger at the blond, Jeff snarled;

"What is with you human beings and your constant misuse of pig whistles?!"

"I'm not human you idiotic lawn ornament, it's me!" Bill snapped in reply.

"Ya right. The Bill Cipher I know is three foot two, yellow, and has a voice that could rival Dipper Pines' when it comes to squeaky high pitchedness. He's not a six foot human male who also happens to be wearing a lot of yellow and- Yea it's you all right."

The demon crossed his arms and said;

"I'm not _that _short."

"I'd be taller than you if you stopped wearing that stupid hat."

Bill glared at him.

"Right! Changing the subject! What are you doing here, and why do you look like that group of blond humans we found roaming around our woods a few years back?"

Knowing exactly who the gnome was talking about, Bill defensively replied;

"I look nothing like the Several Times clones! And I need directions out of the forest."

A few of the other gnomes who had been wandering around of listening to the conversation gasped, and narrowed their eyes suspiciously. Jeff did as well and quietly said;

"The _real _Bill Cipher knows his way around the woods like the back of his hand. Gnomes of the forest, attack!"

A swarm of gnomes overwhelmed him, and before he could even do anything, he had been tied up. the gnomes began carrying a kicking and screaming Bill else where.

"No! Stop it!"

"Not this time fake Bill!"

"I. AM. BILL!" He screamed, trying to struggle out of the ropes.

"No you're not! The real Bill is a triangle!"

"A triangle who can shape shift!" He amended.

"The real Bill has a higher pitched voice too!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE HUMAN VOCAL CHORDS! I'M A DEMON! I AM BILL!"

"You know boss, I think he might be the real Bill." A gnome piped up.

The group stopped walking and began to debate amongst themselves. Annoyed, the demon rolled his eyes, still trying to get out of the ropes. He managed to wriggled out of the ones holding his wrists together, but a few of the gnomes tied him to the tree.

Jeff snapped his fingers and several of the gnomes formed a pyramid. The leader used theirs backs as stairs, so he was now at eye level with the supposed imposter. Glaring at him, the only gnome with brown hair said;

"We'll let you go, _if _you can answer a question only Bill would know the answer to."

"Go ahead." Bill said smugly.

"What's my middle name?"

"Which one? Princess or Marry-Sue?"

Jeff blushed, realizing it was the real demon.

"Your middle name is really-"

"He's real." Jeff announced, wanting to keep his dignity.

He snapped his fingers and the others untied him.

"You're not too far from the edge of the Mystery Shack property." He grumbled, "Five minutes in that direction and you'll be there."

Scowling down at the tiny men, he made his way through the trees. A headache had set in on him, and it felt as if all his muscles were on fire. Staring up at the sky he saw it was only getting darker. Just his luck. Was the whole world out to get him?

The Pines wouldn't even try to listen to what he said. Not even Shooting Star, the most reasonable one who should have been easy to persuade in to making a deal with him. He hadn't even been around long enough to explain why exactly he was in Gravity Falls, specifically in the gift shop.

The gnomes were just a bad idea in the first place, and it had taken them a whole hour just to prove he wasn't an imposter. As if anyone could successfully pretend to be him!

Were all his years of being a demon coming back to get him? No, that couldn't be possible, there was no such thing as karma. Perhaps a few weird coincidences that had come his way left him with less than ideal outcomes. Karma? What karma?! He was a demon! Demon's didn't face any retribution, they were supposed to be evil! It was in the job description! Not that there really was one. There was no such thing as-

_Snap!_

He heard the metallic snap before he felt the crushing pain around his leg. He hissed in agony and stared down at the cause of said issue. A bear trap marked _property of Stanford Pines _had clamped on to his leg. It had been decorated with a few smiley face stickers, clearly out of Mabel's collection. Each glittery yellow smily face seemed to be mocking him while he tried to escape.

The demon tried to pull his leg free, but only succeeded in forcing more pressure on the one spot and farther driving the teeth through his pants and skin. Rather than the pitton being driven in to the ground, it was chained around a tree that also had an advertisement for the Mystery Shack nailed to it.

Scratch that. Karma existed. And it was attacking him with a vengeance.


	3. Chapter III

**Read & Review!**

**Disclaimer: I most certainly do not own Alex Hirsch's Gravity Falls, no matter how much I wish. It's probably not going to be happening, any time soon. Come to think of it, I don't even know what I'd do if I did own the show...**

* * *

Mabel was brushing her hair in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to forget her nightmares from the past few days. She was snapped out of her thoughts as Stan knocked at the door and demanded;

"Mabel! Hurry up in there!"

The young woman sighed and set down her hair brush. Lately, it felt as if she and Stan had not been as close. True, he was already a tough customer, but she was starting to feel as if he was starting to become more distant with her, and closer to Dipper. She wasn't jealous, it just felt, weird. She knew he cared for them, and many of the things he did were to either keep her and Dipper safe, or to run his business, but did that really merit how he had been treating her?

"I'm not getting any younger out here!"

Pulling her hair back and sliding in her trademark headband, Mabel opened the door. She bowed a little and said;

"It's all yours."

Grumbling, he went inside to get ready for another day of scamming. It was still early in the morning, but she could not go back to sleep. Seeing as she wouldn't have anything better to do on her half day off (Stan refused to give her a full day off) she figured Waddles could use a walk. Dipper was still in bed, so she called over the sound of the running water;

"Grunkle Stan, I'm going to take Waddles for a walk!"

The old man swore and called back;

"Aragh! You made me cut myself!"

Nonplussed by the rude reply, Mabel took that as an ok and wandered back to her room. She poked Waddles a few times, waking him up with a start. The pig oinked with a hint of annoyance, but got up anyways. He followed Mabel down the stairs and out the back door, looking around his surroundings.

It was a foggy day, and there were light grey clouds overhead, just dark enough to blot out most of the sun. The day had a sort of gloomy feel to it, and it smelled like it was going to rain. The grass and trees were still covered in dew, because the sun was not out to evaporate the water.

The tall grass swished around them as Mabel and Waddles walked over to the edge of the forest, where it was foggier, but less wet. The brunette took a few deep breaths of the mountain air, and decided to wander around the northern parts of the woods.

Soon, she had forgotten about her dreams for the most part, and she felt a bit better after Stan had yelled at her. After all, it had been the same with Dipper for years, she wouldn't let it faze her. Instead, the teen began to wonder what going to school with Candy and Grenda would be like.

She and her friends had become even closer over the years, and they were always ready to pick up their friendships from where they left off every year. The school system in Gravity Falls wasn't that large, so they would get to have all of their classes together. They could eat lunch together, share notes, discuss any crushes they might have on the boys in their classes.

Candy could help her in science, the only subject she had trouble with thanks to all the magic of Gravity Falls, and in return, she could help with her friend's English. Grenda was alway great at gym, and so they'd all be safe from dodge ball as well. While it may have not been the best choice to go in to some sort of post secondary education, this could easily be her best year of school yet!

A soft moan of pain met her ears. Mabel and Waddles froze and cautiously looked around, backing towards the edge. They were both familiar with some of the supernatural elements of the forest, and knew that they should leave at the slightest hint of something wrong.

"Ohhh." A voice said, a human voice.

As far as she knew, there were no speaking creatures other then the gnomes, but they lived much deeper in the woods. What if someone had been lost in the woods or attacked by one of the creatures? She knew the tourists were not the brightest, but would they really wander off from a tour?

"Hello?" Mabel shakily called.

"My leeeeeg." It replied.

"What do you think Waddles?"She whispered.

He oinked in consent and pushed away a few ferns with a nose, behind it she saw someone's leg splayed out behind them. Realizing that it was indeed a person, she stepped through the low growing plants. She had expected some sort of bloody sight, but all she saw was a chain. Her eyes followed it and saw there was a bear trap with it's jaws shut around someone's leg on one end. On the other, the familiar yellow of Bill was leaning against a tree, his knees drawn up to his chin.

"Please tell me you know how to disable a bear trap." He muttered, not bothering to look at her.

Startled, Mabel began to back away, suppressing a scream.

"W-what are you doing here?"

"I'm throwing a party Shooting Star, didn't you receive your invitation?" He asked pleasantly. "I'M STUCK IN A BEAR TRAP! WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?!"

The teen flinched, and Bill realized if he scared her off, he'd be stuck for a very long time.

"Look, can you just get rid of this stupid thing? And then tell your great-uncle bear traps are not good advertizing methods?"

"How do you know it's Stan's?" She asked curiously.

He held up his leg, displaying the bolded letters and glittery stickers.

"So that's where they went!"

"The stickers or the bear trap?"

"Both."

She inspected the trap for a moment, poking it with a stick. Waddles curiously tried to bite the trap, but let go at the terrible metallic taste. Then, pulling out an allen key, the jaws fell apart.

"That was impossibly simple." She muttered.

Waddles snorted in amusement, and the demon glared at the pig.

"Coming from the one without any opposable thumbs." He snarled to Waddles, trying to get to his feet.

"You're welcome." Mabel coldly said, walking back through the clearing. "Waddles, let's go!"

He struggled a moment, but couldn't stand up. Swallowing his humiliation, the demon called;

"Shooting Star, wait!"

"Why?"

"Errr I can't stand."

"So?"

"I need... help." He said._"Oh how the mighty have fallen."_

"In the form of a question please?"

"Can you help me?"

Mabel was clearly enjoying every minute of his and asked;

"Can you help me what?"

"Can. You help. Me. _Please?" _ He pleaded through gritted teeth.

"Can I?"

"Please, please, please, may you help me walk because I've had my leg trapped in a bear trap for the past six hours?"

Mabel stopped walking and bit her lip. Six hours? Did she really want to help him? The image of his pained face swam in to her thoughts. He was evil, ready to hurt her family. It was just a trick he had pulled in an attempt to gain her trust. Why else would he just sit there instead of using his powers to free himself?

"Please?" He choked.

The brunette sighed and knew there was no way she could just leave someone in the forest, no matter how evil and murderous. She made her way back to the demon. She tried to ignore the light in his eyes and the smirk he tried to hide as he saw that she had returned for him.

Mabel gave him a hand, pulling the blond to his feet. She placed one of his arms around her shoulders, letting him balance his weight against hers. She helped him limp back in a painstakingly slow fashion, inch by inch. The teen shivered slightly at the feeling of his jittery breathing creeping down her back.

Finally, they came to the Shack. Mabel sat him down on the porch, and went inside the house. Just the simple action of walking left him breathless. It seemed he was still getting weaker. What was he going to do? There was no way he could defend himself anymore. If Stan came across him-

"Mabel!" Her great-uncle snarled from somewhere in the building, "You were supposed to be restocking inventory, where were you?!"

The demon shivered at the sound of his voice.

"Grunkle Stan I restocked it last night! And I told you I was going to take Waddles for a walk!"

"That doesn't excuse the fact you're not working!"

"But Stan," she began, "You gave me the morning off remember?"

All was silent for a moment.

"Well then go hang up some more signs in the northern parts of the forest. But be careful! I set up a few bear traps over there to keep away that blond idiot who's been stalking you."

He grimaced at the loud conversation, wondering why Stan was so irritated with Mabel. He had always gotten the impression he got along better with his happy-go lucky great-niece then the serious mirror image of himself that was Dipper.

Mabel walked back out on to the porch, a first aid kit in hand. To him, it looked as if she were trying to hold some sort of emotion back. There was a quick glimpse of something in her eyes, but it was pushed away by her normal cheerful look.

She rolled up his pant leg to his knee, grimacing at the punctures in his skin. They were shallow, but they could get infected easily. He was bleeding slightly, and she wiped it away before doing anything else. Then, the brunette rolled a bandage tightly around his leg before pinning it in place.

"There." She said with a sense of finality.

She paused a moment, thinking something over.

"I'm sure you noticed this was missing." She added, tossing him his wallet.

The demon looked at her questioningly. He knew Stan would be able to tell as soon as a single dollar was missing,and he was already annoyed enough with Mabel as it was.

"You might want to return it before Stan notices."

"Mabel!"

"Too late." She smiled.

The con man stormed out on to the back porch, and was not fazed for a minute by the fact that Bill was sitting on the porch while Mabel returned the wallet he had rightfully stolen from the demon. Stomping his foot, he asked;

"Why is he back here?"

"Well, I went to put up the signs like you said, and found him stuck in a bear trap that _you _set up." She accused.

"Then why are you returning the wallet I rightfully stole?"

"He needed it back." She shrugged.

Narrowing his eyes at the demon, Stan mouthed;

_"What did I just tell you Cipher?!"_

Stan picked up the already disheveled man by the collar and dragged him off the property once again.

"You're hurting my leg." He choked.

"Good."

The demon had been expecting another angry speech, but instead of that, he was just stared down until he began to limp off of the property. Odd. Something was definitely different about Stanford Pines. He didn't have time to dwell on it at the moment though. He was already too busy, trying to figure out how he could possibly get the Pines to listen to him. With his current luck, he guess it was probably going to take him a long time. A long tome he didn't have, because soon his time would be up.


	4. Chapter IV

**Disclaimer: As soon as I own Gravity Falls, I'll let you know. **

* * *

Bill gave a ragged sigh, wondering why he was even going to bother with the pain of humiliation once more. It was clear the Pines were never going to help him, and would probably welcome the news of his suffering. It seemed fate had rapidly and suddenly turned against him. Why? He didn't know.

He hadn't even believed in karma or fate until he had managed to get his leg stuck in that bear trap Stan had set up! He winced at the thought. He leg still hadn't healed. It seemed he would have to tough the injury out like a mere human. He shuddered to think at would have happened if Mabel had not been willing to free him from the trap. Oh the indignity of it all! The blond took a deep breath before knocking on the Shack's front door.

"What ever it is you're selling, we don't want any." Dipper gruffly said from the other side of the door.

"Unless they're cookies!" Mabel called.

"Shhh! Mabel!" Her brother reprimanded. "It might be that guy from the hydro company again!"

"I'm selling cookies?" He half-asked.

It took not five seconds for Mabel to race downstairs, push her brother to the side, and open the door. The eager light from her eyes faded as she saw who was standing on their doorstep.

"Bill, you better be selling cookies." She warned.

"Errr, I'm not selling cookies Shooting Star but-"

Mabel slammed the door, pale as a ghost.

"Dipper, he's not the cookie salesman!" She whispered.

"Oh what gave it away? The fact that he's not a six year old girl in a Girl Scout uniform?"

"He could have been a Boy Scout!"

"Could I at least talk to you guys?"

"No! Can't you go bother Gideon or something?!"

The demon grimaced, remembering his last encounter with the albino. He was even less willing to make a deal with him than the Pines currently were. He heard the twins on the other side of the door, arguing about what to do until Stan came.

"Let's just go away and hope he leaves!"

"What if he breaks down the door?"

"What if he breaks down the door and we're standing in front of it?!"

"I can assure you, I am not going to break down the door." Bill said dryly. "I just want to talk!"

"Ya' if by talking you mean your evil speech before you kill us!" Mabel retorted.

"If I wanted to kill you don't you think I would have already broken down the door?"

"Dipper..." The brunette warned her brother, knowing that logic was always a good enough answer for him.

The twins debated some more. To the demon's absolute frustration, he heard their footsteps fading as they decided to leave him waiting at the front door.

"No! Wait! Please!"

Bill froze, wondering if he had really said so. Had he really been this desperate? The dull pain in his leg and the fatigue that was slowly taking over his body certainly seemed to say so. His voice echoed through the Shack. Dipper and Mabel froze as well, hearing the sheer volume of pain in his voice. The shared a look, almost having a conversation with only their eyes. Then, they both sighed, knowing they didn't have the heart to leave him on the door step.

Mabel swung open the door, and the blond collapsed at their feet. He had been leaning his head against the door, mad at himself for even bothering to try. Then he found himself suddenly well acquainted with the floor while the twins looked down at him with a hint of concern.

"I'm fine." He said, his words a bit squashed as he lay there.

They shared an uneasy look as he struggled to get to his feet. Finally, Mabel lent him a hand which he greatfully albeit abashedly took. Dusting of his fading yellow suit and straightening his tie, he sheepishly tried to excuse it by informing them;

"Going from flat to 3D is a change, I'm still not used to it."

They took it a bit questioningly though. Mabel glanced at the leg he had mangled when she thought he would not notice, a tiny bit of sympathy evident in her stare. Noting this, he decided it would be best to prey upon her caring and sympathetic side if he were to earn their trust. But, there was only one problem with this, that being-

"Stan." He said aloud to himself. "I need to talk to Stan as well."

Mabel gave him a skeptical look, wondering if he was serious. But her brother had already called through the house;

"Stan! Quick! It's very important!"

For an old man, Stanford Pines could really move quickly when he wanted to. He came in to the Shack grinning and asking;

"More tourists?"

His denture-filled smile faded as Stan growled;

"Cipher!"

The twins looked between their great-uncle and the demon who was clearly trying not to look afraid. How did Stan know who he was? What had caused so much animosity between the two? Stan turned to his great-niece, not showing any regret for slipping up.

"Mabel! Did you let this dressed up corn chip in to the Shack?"

Bill groaned at the terrible nick name. Meanwhile, Dipper immediately came to his sister's defence.

"We both did. He's not going to leave us alone otherwise."

Stan turned back to the demon. If demons could die and looks could kill, he would be very, very dead.

"Fine. You speak, then you get out of my house, and never come near my great-niece or nephew again."

"I'm dying."

"Your clothes a different colour? Well it's about time! That yellow is horrendous! Now get out!"

"No Stan. As in actuall deceasing, pushing up daisies. Worm food."

"Couldn't you have just sent us a telegram? They've only been around for a century or so Bill."

"Stan!" Mabel protested.

Her great-uncle raised a hand and sharply said;

"Not a peep from either of you! You don't know who you're dealing with!"

"But Gunkle Stan we've-"

"Been in my mind before?" Asked, cutting off his nephew. "That doesn't mean anything in my books. He let you go once, do you think he's going to be so willing to this time? You should be glad he's going to be six feet under before he kills either of you!"

_"Owch, that stings." _Bill thought bitterly to himself.

"Even if he actually is, he has some other reason for being here. I know you didn't just come here so I could rub it in your face."

"Stan! How could you say that?!"

"Don't try any of your cutesy persuasion on me missy! Dipper, take your sister and go to your room."

Annoyed, confused, and intrigued, the twins sulked off. They stomped up the stairs, stopping when they were sure Stan thought they were in the attic. Neither of them wanted to miss what the demon or Stan had to say. As it turned out, there was not much to hear.

"And stay out!"

They heard the sound of Stan slamming the door and him coming up the rickety stairs. Dipper and Mabel raced in to the room before he could find out. Sitting on Dipper's bed while they waited for Stan to open the door. Sure enough, he came in to the room. If he was suspicious, he didn't voice it and instead told the twins;

"He's gone. For good if he keeps his word. If he doesn't..." Stan paused, letting out a deep breath of air. "Mabel, if you ever let Bill in to the Shack or anywhere on the property, if he ever comes near you again, I will do everything in my power to ground you until you are my age."

The brunette swallowed her protests and nodded.

"Dipper..." He faded once more. "Just stop your sister from making any stupid decisions."

With that, he left the twins to their own devices. Immediately, Dipper was off ranting about what Stan had just said to Mabel, not caring if she was listening to him or not.

"How can he jusy blame you?! I told him we both let him in to the Shack! And why was he all over _you _about helping him?! It's not like you have before or anything!"

"Dipper-"

"And he really thinks you'd just blindly trust him? Honestly?!"

"Dipper..."

"I've noticed the way he's been treating you too! Like the first time he and I met! Except you haven't done anything! And there was that time when he-"

"Dipper!"

The younger by five minutes twin turned to his sister.

"Was I ranting over you again?"

"Yes."

"What did I miss?"

She sighed and said;

"I found him in the forest, stuck in one of those bear traps yesterday. I couldn't just leave him there!"

Dipper nodded in his consent, but it seemed as if he had barely heard her. It looked like he was going to continue with his tirade about Stan. She tried to get her brother to calm down.

"He's just being protective Dipper. Stan lives in the old world remember? Poor defenseless women? He's probably just worried because Bill keeps showing up when only I'm around."

"But that doesn't explain how he was acting before Bill was in the picture!"

"Relax Dipping-Sauce, he's probably had the same thoughts, just more so now that to quote Stan, dressed up corn chip is around. It's like how you thought he hated you when we were twelve. Remember how you found out the hard way afterwards? It's probably just the same with me!"

Dipper looked at his sister, trying to determine whether or not she was convinced of it herself. He wasn't able to tell when she was like this, so he dismissed it with a shrug. Inwardly, the young woman gave a sigh of relief, hoping he believed it. She would have tried to as well if the whole premise wasn't so laughably pathetic. Rather than let either one of them dwell on it, she changed the subject.

"Do you really think he's dying?" The brunette asked softly.

Dipper sighed, flopping on to his bed.

"I don't know what to think anymore Mabel, I don't know."

* * *

_"Do you really think he's dying?"_

_"I don't know what to think anymore Mabel, I don't know."_

Stan gave a deep and broken-hearted sigh, heaving his once broad shoulders. The con man pulled himself away from the twin's bedroom door and silently made his way down the stairs once more. He went in to his office, the once place he was sure he would not be disturbed.

Sitting down at his desk, he pulled out the all too familiar glassess and set them on the table. He pitifully stared down at the slightly rounded frames.

"I hate playing bad guy with them Stan, but what am I supposed to do? That Mabel reminds me more and more of you every day that passes! What am I supposed to do if she becomes all too similar? What if she decides she can trust Bill? I don't have enough room in my suit jacket for all her sweaters let alone your glasses!"

He gave a sharp bark of a laugh, but it quickly transformed in to a series of hacking, spastic coughs.

_"Do you really think he's dying?"_ Mabel's voice reverbrated in his mind.

_"You're not the only one with death catching up to you Cipher."_

* * *

Bill lay in the mud just beyond the Mystery Shack's porch. He knew it would ruin his suit, and it was starting to get in his mouth, but he couldn't stand. He couldn't get up, teleport to the dreamscape, or do so much as blink. He was stuck where Stan had thrown him, physically and mentally uncapeable of moving.

_"Oh well, at least I'm already party burried. That'll save money for the funeral. Not that anyone would show, or really care."_

As if some sort of cruel force in nature decided to match his mood, a scream of thunder and lightning tore through the sky, and it spontaneously burst in to rain. Not just a light spray, fire hose worthy, with bits of hail in the mix. All farther sticking him in the mud. Maybe he'd die from drowning. How long would that take?

_"Something? Anybody?!"_ He pleaded to some sort of higher foece.

Then as if some sort of mircale came to save him, someone opened the door. But it was only Stan, his hopes fell, but rose again as he watched the old man lock Mabel's pig outside. Pigs were fairly clever animals weren't they?

"Hey! You! Pork Chop! Help me!"

Waddles looked over to where the voice had come from, but with narrowed eyes. He hated it when people called him different cuts of meat. That weird pale person had called him "Bacon" all the time, it sent shivers of fear and anger down his tiny spine.

"Ya' you! BLT! Get me outta here!"

Waddles gave a squeal of rage and disgust. First of all, it was raining, second he had no reason to help the man. Instead, the devious little pig turned around and sat facing him. Staring unblinkingly, taunting him. But as he watched the yellow man give a defeated sigh and rest his head in the mud once more, he felt something. He really did seem to be quite helpless there. Just like earlier with the bear trap. After farther observation of his defeated air, Waddles could take it no more.

He trotted over to the yellow man, giving him a tentative nudge with his hand. He was freezing cold, the rain probably wasn't doing him any good either. His hand curled slightly as he did so, he was still alive it seemed. But with the great instinct that came to all animals, he could tell he would not be for much longer. Especially in this cold. The pig curled up as close as he possibly could to the strange man, trying to keep him warm as the rain continued to fall. It was going to be a very long night.

* * *

The storm cleared over night, and the next morning, the twins got up for another day of work. Mabel noted a strange lack of Waddles as she ate her breakfast and restocked inventory in the gift shop. Her pig never missed a meal, and he usually kept her company while she was working.

As she wandered outside on her lunch break, Mabel noticed some peculiar sirring by the front of the Shack. The young woman went over to investigate the activity. What she saw nearly made her scream. Bill was laying in the mud, evidently stuck. Tourists surrounded him, in the middle of it all, Stan.

"And here you'll see Sucker Stuck in the Mud... errr Looser-Pants, the idiot who got suck in the mud and has never moved ever since."

"Is he dead?" A tourist asked.

All of the other people gasped, as if this thought had never entered their minds. Knowing the tourists, it hadn't.

"Nah." Stan easily waved off. "He just looks dead and acts like it too."

"Will he move if I kick him?" A little boy asked.

A grin spread across his face.

"No. But you can try and make him for five- ten- fifty bucks!"

Instantly tourists were waving cash in the con man's face. As the first tourist was about to try and kick him, they paused.

"What about that pig sleeping on his back?"

_"Pig?!"_

Mabel pushed herself through the crowd. Sure enough, Waddles rested on the demon's back, politely blinking at the crowd. As soon as Stan saw her, he gave his great-niece a warning look. Probably telling her to take the pig and go, or else.

The brunette bit her lip. What should she do? She could already hear what he would be telling her if she dared try to help him. Instead, Mabel bent over as if trying to coax Waddles to come over. Really, she was staring at Bill. The demon was wide awake, and pleadingly stared at her with the most desperate expression she had ever seen.

It took Mabel all of her will power to defy her nature and not help him. Eventually Waddles reluctantly walked over to her and let himself be carried off. Never before had Mabel felt such self-loathing as she walked away from the group. She knew Stan hated the demon, but to this extent? What had he done that would merit such humiliation?

Once she was safely inside the Shack, Mabel set down Waddles. She ran up the flights of stairs and went in to her bedroom. She hurled herself on the bed and began to sob. How could have she done that? It wasn't like she had a grudge against him! And if he really was dying... What had she just done? Mabel was so caught up in her theatrics, she didn't realize Dipper was in the room.

Immediately, he was hovering over his sister, trying to find out why she was so upset. She was so hysterical, she didn't even realize someone was patting her back and asking what was wrong. Dipper hated what he was going to do next, but it was the only way he could get her to calm down. He bit his lip, hoping he would be able to forgive himself for what he had to do.

_Slap!_

Shocked, Mabel held her cheek. Her brother blushed, ashamed he had to resort in something so desperate. But it had worked. She calmed down, sniffling still as silent tears streaked down her face.

"Mabel, what happened? Did you help him or something? "

"N-no D-Dipper! I-it's because I d-didn't help h-h-him!

"Help him what?"

"He was just laying there in the mud Dipper, he was stuck! And Stan had made an a-attraction out of him! P-people could pay to h-hurt him and s-s-see if he w-would m-move!"

"He what?!" Her brother asked her so fiercely she flinched.

"Y-you heard m-me."

"I won't let him." He snarled, standing up.

"N-no! He'll blame me when he's gone!"

"So I'll make sure the old man watches as I pick him up!"

Before Mabel could warn her brother again, he had already stormed out of the room.


	5. Chapter V

**Read & Review**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Dipper stormed out of the Shack, trying to locate the demon. The crowds of tourists had vanished along with Stan and the go-carts. Fine, he could wait! But when he found Bill sprawled out in the now drying mud, Dipper decided he could change his mind.

Why would anyone pay to hurt someone like this? Like he was less than human? Well, he was, but they didn't know that! Dipper couldn't tell how bad he was because he was mud splattered and his sleeves covered a fair bit of his arms. But it looked as if his breathing was pained and left eye was going to be a black eye soon.

Bill silently stared at him, trying to determine what would be his fate. The boy did really take after Stan after all. Much to his surprise, the young man tried to pry him from the mud. Pain rocketed through his entire being as he did so, and he gave a tiny moan of dispare and anguish. Dipper did as well, wondering how he was supposed to help him.

"Any suggestions?" He asked.

"Make a deal, or promise you will make one with me." The blond managed to choke in reply.

"Why?"

"It's why I'm dying. I'll regain strength."

Dipper hesitated. What trouble could he be getting in to, making a deal with him? It could have been all some sort of elaborate scheme!

"Just your word that you will one day make a deal with me." The demon elaborated.

There was silence between them. But suddenly, the sound of Stan's voice and those of the tourist's echoed in the distance. They were returning to the Mystery Shack. If Dipper didn't know better, he would have sworn he saw fear cross the demon's features.

"I, Dipper Alex Robert Pines,-" The young man's voice echoed through the air, an unearthly quality possessing it, "Give my honorable word that I will make a deal some time in the near future with-"

"William, not Bill." The demon interrupted. "It's only a nick name."

"Right. In the near future with William Cipher."

As soon as he finished, a cyan glow surrounded the demon. A warm sensation filled him, and for a moment, the pain in him vanished. A renewed energy filled him. Dipper watched astounded as he got to his shaky feet, legs still trembling. Slowly, he took a few practice steps, just as amazed as he walked with ease.

"Great! We need to go find Mabel so she can stop crying."

The two men walked to the back of the Shack just as Stan and the rest of the tour group appeared. Noticing the mud outline where his star attraction once lay, Stan's mind jumped to one conclusion.

"MABEL!"

The colour drained from both of their faces.

"Come on, we'll just go explain to him that-"

"There's not time for that!" Bill hissed painfully.

Before Dipper knew what was happening, Bill grabbed his wrist and suddenly everything turned white. He saw Mabel and the attic for a moment before it became white once more. It was like a vortex was swirling inside of his head, he couldn't tell what was going on. There was a sudden ringing that filled his ears, the only thing left in his mind. And then, nothing.

Shapes formed around him, grey, white, black. Suddenly, he could see once more. But the first thing he saw was not a pleasant sight. His sister trying to hide her chest and bra as for some reason, she was not wearing her sweater.

"Ahhh!" Dipper screamed.

"Ahhh!" Mabel screamed in reply.

"Put something on! Put something on!" He panicked.

"I can't there isn't anything!"

Just then, a sweater somehow landed on her head. Quickly, she slipped it on, not caring what it looked like. As a matter of fact, it was her shooting star sweater.

"What was that about?!" He screamed.

"Errr... I panicked, and when I panic, my transporting skills tend to mess with me." He paused, giving Mabel an appreciative smirk. "At least yellow is your colour."

Mabel blushed and Dipper glared at him for his vulgar comment.

"Not just that! Where are we?! What did you do?" Mabel frantically asked.

They all looked around. They were in some sort of hallway of sorts. A fancy one it appeared, even in all the drab grey colours. It looked a little run down, but still high class. And unless they had gone colour blind, they were inside of-

"Well at least I managed to safely get us in to my mind." Bill sighed.

"Your mind?!" Both twins screamed at the same time.

"Again, panicking, messes me up every now and then too you know."

"Alright you have a lot of explaining to do mister!" Mabel declared, stomping her foot.

"I couldn't agree more." He gestured down the hall. "So if you'd kindly follow me."

He offered Mabel his arm, but she glared at him suspiciously and took her brother's instead. He internally flinched at her venomous expression, but shrugged as if he didn't care. The demon lead them down the grey halls, their feet barely making the softest of echoes.

The twins peered curiously at their surroundings, interested in the decaying luxury of the hall. Finally, they came to a pair of French doors. The demon twisted the elegantly engraved handle and gestured them inside. To their surprise, it was coloured inside.

They were met by mahogany walls and ebony wainscoting, a push carpet under their feet, a fire-place off to the side, several book cases, a desk, and three chairs. Despite there being no windows or lights, the room was darkly lit by some sort of unnatural source. Once again, he gestured in the direction of the chairs. In his usual gentlemanly custom, he pulled out Mabel's chair before sitting down himself.

"So... Where to begin?" Bill asked.

'You're dying?" Dipper voiced.

Bill sighed, rubbing his temples. The energetic demon the Mystery Twins had first met seemed to melt away as he did this. Revealing a much more tired, defeated being. His whole front was still covered with mud, and his hair was a tangled mess under his top hat. His black eye had set in now, a sickly, swollen purple and green. The bandage Mabel had tied around his leg had come loose and the blood slicked cloth poked through his pants. He was not anything the twins could ever envision him to be. Bill Cipher, he looked broken.

"Yes. In a few decades, I'm going to be nothing more than a pile of dust."

"What? Why?"

He gave a bitter laugh.

"Apparently there were loopholes in my contract. They just didn't start showing up until now. I'm immortal, but only by so little."

"Contract?" Dipper asked.

"Yes contract. Demon's are not born. They're made."

"You mean, you were once-"

"Human?" He interrupted. "Yes. I suppose so."

"Bill, have you ever considered being less cryptic when trying to explain stuff?" Mabel asked, crossing her arms.

"No. Bluntness was never my forté."

"You were human once, and now you're dying. Where do we come in?"

The blond sighed, tapping his fingers against the desk. He averted his eyes from the twins, wanting to stall for time, but get everything over with at the same time. Of all the things he had to tell them, this was possibly the most humiliating.

"I have reason to think... I have reason to think-" He froze, his words stuck in his throat.

"Yes?" The twins asked simultaneously.

"I have reason to think- No I'm certain my memories have been tampered with."

Silence. The demon had expected anything but this. He figured they would laugh at him, tease him for this. That he, the master of the mind, grand master of tricks couldn't even tell when his own memories had been manipulated. How could he possibly worthy of these titles?

"Tampered with, how?" Mabel delicately asked.

"I didn't remember that I had ever been human before, I had always thought I was a demon. I have memories of... lots of things, but apparently they were never my own. It wasn't until recently I found out that I was dying, and that I was human. But even then, I don't get my human memories back. For the remaining eighty some odd years I have, I have to live with the fact that I had a life, that I wasn't always this!"

He pointed to the reflection in the desk, where the all-seeing eye peered back at them instead of the defeated demon's human form.

"And you want us to help you find your memories." Dipper concluded. "Why not look for them yourself? We don't know how you think. Mabel doesn't even know if you spell your name with a Y or an I!"

"Hey! I know he spells it with an I!" She protested.

"You're not helping me make my point Mabel." Her brother said through gritted teeth.

"It would have been better if you brought up our argument on him being isosceles or not."

"Belive it or not, I am- was, a scalene triangle."

"What?! Impossible!" Mabel protested

"Only by a few millimeters of course, my hat just balanced everything out."

"Great, just great. But your geometric traumas are not going to help us find your memories Bill. And why us? Last time I checked you were ready to kill my sister and Soos!"

"Stop being so dramatic. You can't physically die if only your mind is in the dreamscape. They would have just slipped in to comas, from which they could not wake and die in hospital as they cut off their life support."

"You aren't helping your case by telling us this." Mabel said with a tiny shudder. His explanation chilled her to the bone and once again she silently thanked escaping unharmed.

"You know, I was originally only going to ask your sister, not you." Bill informed the slightly younger Mystery Twin, "She has an annoying knack for psychoanalyzing people with out realizing it herself. If anyone's going to figure out where they are, it's her."

"Mabel doesn't psycoanalyze people, she just stalks someone until she can figure something out."

Before Mabel could let the put down get to her, she felt something behind her. Bill, who planned to come to her defense on what she could do, froze as something caught the demon's attention. Suddenly, he leaped out of his chair, and was some how holding his own shadow in a head-lock. The silhouette was actually trying to fight back as he held it there. Dipper and Mabel looked at them, startled.

"Bad shadow! You know that's wrong!" He scolded the absence of light.

Finally, it stopped struggling against him. The blond let go of it, and watched as it hung it's head in shame. Pointing his finger at Mabel, he commanded;

"Now apologize to her."

The being floated over to the brunette, apparently still ashamed. It gave what appeared to be an apologetic shrug, offering it's hand to her own shadow. To everyone's surprise, her own silhouette slapped his own. The being quickly floated back over to his master, hiding behind him for the time being.

"Err, what was all that about?" Dipper inquired.

Panting slightly, he replied;

"My shadow as a mind of it's own. Literally. "

"But what did it even do? He's sort of cute really."

"Don't let those puppy eyes fool you."

"He doesn't have-"

"That doesn't stop him from being cute now does it? I'm sure he's just going to insist he was curious as to why you two were in my mind. That doesn't excuse what you did shadow." He finished with a reprimand.

"How does it do that? How did Mabel's do that? Is it like a part of you? Emotions you push to the side or something?"

"No." The demon lied.

Dipper had practically hit the nail on the head. But if he told the truth and his shadow did something irrational or did something to his sister, Dipper would send him to an early grave. He had to admit, he was curious about what Mabel could be hiding from her brother.

"It's just like being right-handed or left, except more rare. Some do, some don't." He explained. "Anyways, we've _really _been avoiding the subject."

The twins nodded in unison.

"A deal then! I want both of your help to find my memories, you both get whatever you want in return!"

Dipper looked at him uneasily.

"Do we have to make it a deal?"

"Your sister doesn't, but you promised. Making a few deals will keep up my powers while we're a bit as well."

The twins looked between each other, trying to come to a decision.

"We need time to think this over." The young woman finally said.

"Go ahead." The demon placed an hour-glass on the desk, turning it upside down. "You have an hour to decide."


	6. Chapter VI

**Read & Review!**

**A lot of you guys have been mentioning how big of a jerk Stan is being. Trust me, he's a kitten to some of the people we run in to later. There is more to Stan's hatred of Bill than loosing a twin, please don't make assumptions when no one has formally be adressed as Stanley yet. Of course it does not justify his treatment, but it does help you see where he is coming from.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Ignoring his aching back, Stan went up the three flights of stairs trying to find his great-niece. He thought he had made it clear about helping the demon! Didn't she know what Bill could so easily do if he got to her? Mabel may have not fallen in love on a dime like she used to, but she had grown in to a very beautiful and charming young woman. There were only so many men he could chase away from her before his back snapped. Bill Cipher got what Bill Cipher wanted. And if said desired thing was Mabel...

He knocked on the twin's bedroom door. There was no reply. He knocked louder, still no sound of stirring.

"Come on Mabel! I know you're in there!"

He expected her to reply with a quick;

"No I'm not!"

But there was nothing. The old man debated something before opening the door. To his surprise, the room looked like a whirl-wind had torn threw it. Furniture and left over bits of attractions were strewn across the room. Like there had been a struggle of some sort. Stan gasped, rushing in to the room.

"Mabel? Mabel!"

To his horror, laying on the bed was the sweater she had been wearing that day. All of her other ones were spread across the room as well. Mabel would never leave her sweaters behind or treat the beloved signature garments in such a manner. Something was terribly wrong. The feeling that had been poking at his conscience the past while, that something would happen...

"Dipper!" The man frantically called through the house.

He listened as his voice rang through the house, but was met with no response. A cold sweat began to break out on him.

"DIPPER!" He called once more.

He leaped down the staircase, ignoring the pain that spread through his knees. He shuffled as fast as he could to the gift shop, where Soos was restocking inventory.

"Soos, did you see where Dipper went?" He asked frantically.

"Oh yea dude, I saw him. He was walking over to the guy who you turned in to an attraction a while back."

"Have you seen him since?"

"Nope!"

The old man searched outside anyways. Nothing. They were gone. Why hadn't he listened to his conscience? This never could have happened otherwise! It didn't take a genius to guess what had happened to his great-niece and nephew.

Suddenly, the con man collapsed on his knees, all of his exertion taking it's toll on his decades old body. What was going to happen to the kids? What did Bill want with them? Was it just some sort of personal revenge? Would he find their bodies in the lake ten days later? Stan did the only thing he could do at that current time; He wept.

* * *

Dipper and Mabel looked uneasily between the hourglass and Bill. The demon took the hint as they remained silent, and vanished, shadow and all. Once they were sure he was gone, Mabel let out a sigh of relief and Dipper became slightly less tense. Imaging a pencil and a pad of paper, Dipper looked at his sister expectantly. She imagined her own pink paper with a blue glitter pen and nodded, indicating for him to start.

"Well, we need to list our options and what we could get in return from him. You list all the ones you can think of, and I'll do the same."

"Alright." She consented. "Ready, set, go!"

The twins began to scrawl down their options, almost racing each other as they did so. After what Dipper estimated to be two minutes or so passed, the young man called;

"And stop!"

The twins swapped notes, reading them over. In Dipper's small messy writing, he had written;

_1. Promise to not hurt us after completing deal._

_2. Insure a way out of his mind._

_3. Stay out of our lives forever._

In Mabel's neat, curly writing, she had a few more options.

_1. A way out of his mind._

_2. Leave us alone after we help him._

_3. Kittens for fists!_

_4. Understand the brilliance of synthesized music._

_5. The reason why Stan hates him so much, what happened between them._

_6. Nothing._

Dipper looked over his sister's list in astonishment.

"Mabel! Now's not the times for jokes! We only have a little bit of time left!" He panicked, pointing to the hourglass.

"I wasn't joking." The brunette said, hurt evident in her voice.

"You can't be serious! You didn't even think to stop him from hurting us!"

"Dipper," Mabel began strictly, "There's no way he's going to make an honest deal with us anyways. Yes we're going to be going through his mind, and he wouldn't want anyone who knew what was in his mind to continue living. But there's no way you can stop him for hurting us.

"There are so many loopholes to what he could use. He could promise not to hurt us, but it doesn't stop him from placing us in mortal peril and leaving us there. If there's anything I want, it's to find out why Stan hates him so much. He was willing to just leave him there to die, not letting me even help. I want to know."

Dipper shivered, wondering why he had not thought about this himself. He hadn't meant to hurt his sister when said he disbelieved her ability to study people, he was just afraid of her trying to get in to the demon's mind. Bill already gave him the creeps, and the comment on her choice in bra colours set him on edge. He didn't want his sister anywhere near him, especially not trying to understand the demon. But what if she already had? Her relevations on what he could do to them certainly seemed to say so.

"Well, alright. You can make your promise to him, and I'll make mine."

They both sighed, looking at the hourglass. It was still a quarter filled.

"Do we have to wait?" Dipper wondered.

"Nah, he's probably listening to our conversation anyways. Just insult him and he'll come out."

Again, Dipper looked at his sister, unnerved. This was not good. Just then, Bill appeared behind the young woman. He raised a hand to his lips, wanting him to finish what he was saying. The younger twin decided to go along with it, just to keep him amused.

"I t-think you better test out that theory yourself." He said gently.

"What's the harm in it?" His sister asked with a shrug.

He paled.

"Bill Cipher's hair makes him look like a sheep dog!"

"I don't see what's wrong with that." A voice buzzed in her ear.

The brunette jumped, blushing slightly.

"Err. I was just trying to-"

"I know. I was listening to your conversations after all. So our deals then."

The demon sat back down and pulled out two blank pieces of parchment. He began to quickly yet elegantly write something in calligraphic letters with a fountain pen.

The twins noted he had considerably cleaned himself up in the short time that he was gone, changing in to a clean suit and fixing the bandages on his leg. His hair looked considerably less dirty, but it appeared to have never encountered a comb in it's entire life. It made Mabel want to take one and brush the strands covering his eyes, thus her jab at him looking like a sheep dog. He had interestingly enough covered his black eye with a triangular-shaped eye patch, deciding for what ever reason it was less distracting than his temporary disfigurement.

Dipper and Mabel continued to patiently wait as he went on with his writing. He finished the writing on one paper, and then tapped the other. It mimicked the writing on it's partner, two long paragraphs of fancy writing. He handed them to the twins silently, letting them read over the contracts.

"Why is the first paragraph in Latin?" Dipper asked suspiciously.

Bill shrugged.

"It's just part of the process. Latin's the closest thing I have to a first language."

"But Latin translates to a ton of different things in English! This is riddled with double meanings!"

"Yes well-"

"And how come Gideon didn't have to sign one of these?"

The demon snapped his fingers, muting Dipper's voice so he could talk. The young man clutched his throat in surprise, trying to complain about what he had done. Bill just rolled his one good eye.

"Look kid, the deal is not supposed to be honest. It's formatted like this for a reason. I. Am. A. Demon. Considering the fact that I'm essentially putting my life in your hands with this deal, it's about as honest as one from me is going to get. Gideon technically did sign one when he used some of his blood, and M- Shooting Star's hair to summon me."

"Where did Gideon get some of my hair?" Mabel asked, very freaked out by the notation.

"It's best just to be glad that crème puff is in jail and out of your way." He informed her.

She shuddered at the less than pleasant memories of the albino. Gods she was glad to be rid of him, hopefully for all of eternity. Still, she couldn't help but ask;

"Why did he need my hair?"

"I needed his word on something about you." He said, slightly uncomfortable.

The demon brightened once more, and clapped his hands. Dipper's voice unstuck, and they were temporarily flooded by a deluge of what he had been trying to say the entire time he had been silenced by the demon.

"-And that's all I have to say about that! And then-"

"Pine Tree look. You've already promised to make a deal with me, it doesn't matter what loopholes there are! Either way you'd be stuck in this predicament, and your sister would be by association! So please can we get on with this already?"

Embarrassed by the demon's impatient outburst, the young man sheepishly nodded.

"Right. Ma- Shooting Star, you have to wait in the hall while we sign the papers and so will your brother when it's your turn. Shadow has to as well because I know he's eager to mess things up when we're not looking."

Mabel nodded, standing up, and the shadow followed behind her.

"And behave yourself!" The demon called after it.

* * *

Mabel stood out in the hall and watched as the silhouette closed the door behind himself. It floated over to the wall slightly farther away from her and leaned against it, apparently trying to act indifferent to her appearance. Well, it wasn't so much against the wall as it was on the wall, like a real shadow would do.

The woman shrugged, not really caring. Instead she stood there apprehensively, wondering how long it would take to make the deal. What if something went wrong? What if Dipper decided against it? Did she have to give blood as well? Would it hurt?

She was surprised to find a hand rest on her shoulder. If was startlingly chilly in the spot as if ice water ran through her veins in that spot. She jumped slightly in surprise. Her own shadow was there, trying to reassure her that she would be fine. The brunette gave it a nod of acknowledgement, and her silhouette did as well. Then it returned to it's spot behind her in the halls, almost like it was guarding her.

She nearly yelped as she felt someone tap her on the same spot. It was only Dipper, who looked deathly pale. But already some colour was returning to her brother's face, so she was no as worried as she could be. Mabel took this as her sign to reenter the room. It was silent as she did so, barely making as sound as she walked across the shaggy carpet. Bill watched her as she did this, leaving her feeling slightly unnerved by his bright yellow stare. Mabel took her seat and looked at him expectantly. Bill was first to speak.

"Did he behave?"

She assumed he was talking about his shadow, and gave a very tiny;

"Yes."

The blond became a little less stiff at this, but still held a tense air about him.

"I'm sorry Mabel, but we do need some of your blood. A fair amount though."

Mabel shivered, scared at the possibilities. She watched with wide eyes as he produced a slim golden dagger, with little amethysts and rubies enjewled on the sides. The brunette whimpered as he tried to hand it too her not wanting to touch the weapon. Her eyes were shut tight. Bill allowed his expression to soften at her fear.

"I'll do it." He gently told her, "You won't feel a thing, I promise."

The young woman did not say anything, but she cautiously gave the demon her hand. Bill took her hand, surveying it for a moment, then carefully opened her palm so it was facing him. He looked over the lines in her hand. While he had never believed in palmistry, he had not believed in fate and karma as well. And look where that got him! He compared his own hand to hers, noticing the similar lengths in life lines, and her shape in love roughly formed a pair of initials.

_"WD? WC? WO?" _The blond mused to himself.

With out realizing it, he had begun to caress her tiny China-doll hand, tracing the lines and ridges of her delicate palm, and the smooth outline of her elegant fingers. Regret filled him as he prepared to draw the blood from her hand. He shook his head, trying to clear it.

_"Stop being so ridiculous! It's a hand! Even if her's is beautiful, and soft, and makes out wonder what it would feel like if she were running her fingers through your hair with them, wrapped around my- It doesn't matter! You can heal it anyways! Just get it over with!"_

Mabel was surprised as she barely felt a thing. No stinging, no tearing. It almost tickled! Like someone was stroking her! After a tiny bit, she felt a small scraping and what felt like water run across her palm. She let it run for a while, and finally Bill declared;

"Done. The dagger is gone, you can look."

Timidly, she opened her eyes. The young woman gasped, seeing the wound on her hand, but feeling no pain. The blond pulled out a fountain pen, and a small bottle filled with something red.

_"My blood!" _She inwardly screamed.

"Yes." He agreed. "Now, if you don't mind-"

Once again, he took her hand that was still gently bleeding. He waved his own fingers over it in spidery patterns. A warming sensation spread throughout her, leaving a tingling where her cut had once been. She watched astounded as it healed before her eyes, the tiny flesh wound mending itself.

"T-thank you." She lightly stuttered.

"You're ambidextrous." He suddenly stated.

"Errr, yea?"

"Sign with your left hand." He suddenly stated, suddenly thrusting the pen and bottle of ink into her hands.

"Alright." She replied, wondering why the demon could possibly want her to do this.

She lightly dipped the fountain pen in the makeshift ink, watching as her blood crawled across the nib of the pen. She brought it over to the parchment. Slowly, she wrote her name across the browning paper, writing her name in only the most elegant of her cursive, finishing off with a very curly "E" to get rid of the rest of the blood. Mabel watched in a mixture of terror and awe at the red glistened brighter and brighter, an unnatural light shinning from the spots where the blood was.

Once the shinning had stopped, Bill took the paper from her. With barely a pause, he drew enough of his own almost maroon blood and quickly wrote his name. A burning sensation set over both of their left hands; The ones they had both used to sign. But rather than an agonizing burning, searing pain that ate way at them, this was a more calm but equally dangerous one. It danced across them for a while in their serious quiet, then gently, tiredly faded to back from where it came. They were left with a sensation of briefly being met by something that existed in neither of their worlds. Something larger than themselves, pressing down on them.

"A deal is a deal, and it is yet to be done. I think you shall find this is only the beginning of one." The blond recited. "So best of luck in holding up your part, or you'll find yourself worse off from your start."

"I will?"

"Sorry, it's just something I'm supposed to say afterwards to wish my partner best of luck. Obviously I'm not one to say so, wanting the worst out come for them, but you and your brother are a special case."

They both shook their heads, trying to get the odd feeling out of them.

"I've been meaning to ask you since you said this. All that talk about going in to a coma if we die here, are we asleep right now? What if Stan tries to follow us in to our minds ir something, thinking you're there?"

"He won't. I physically brought you with me in to the dreamscape. Consider yourself a temporary demon. You'll notice your powers of imagination are heightened, your attention span grows shorter, and your bodily functions slow down. No hunger, no sleep, hardly anything. It might take some adjusting for you guys though." He explained, wiping his forehead.

"Ok then. I guess I better go explain that to Dipper as well."

"Sure, I just need one more thing before I can put away the contract." He looked almost nervous as he said this, like he was afraid she would say no.

"I know it sounds creepy, but I need some of your hair."

"Why?"

"I need your word. After I explain to you why Stan hates me so much, you can not tell anyone that you know the story. "

"Well, if you have to."

She let him take a pair of scissors and carefully cut off a curl near the ends of her long hair. He waved his hands once more and it grew back in place. He curiously stared down at the piece in his hand before tucking it in to his jacket.

"Right then, if you could... could get your-" The demon faded off, almost in a daze.

Mabel looked at him in concern. The blond began to appear fatigued and spaced out, unable to collect and focus on his thoughts.

"I'm fine." The blond tried to wave off. "Just... I'm fine. Really..."

The young woman looked at him skeptically, but tried not to push it. In return, he gave her a glare that seemed to be telling her to leave, or else. She stood and went over to the door, and gave him one last glance.

"Tell Shadow to lead you, to your... rooms."

She nodded, indicating that she had heard him before shutting the door behind her. Immediately Dipper was by her side, ready to ask several million questions.

"I'm fine Dipper, everything went fine. I just had to give my word to him that I won't tell him why Stan hates him so much to any one."

Her brother let out a sigh of relief.

"Everything went fine then? He didn't make you do anything-"

She grinned at her brother's over protective attitude.

"Relax Dipper, I just have to give him my first-born child."

"What?!"

"Joking Dipping-Sauce, that's Rumpelstiltskin. You already know what we promised. Why Stan hates him, and a way out of his mind."

"Don't scare me like that Mabel! How am I supposed to know what he made you do?"

"Fine, sorry for confusing you by partially retelling a well-known children's story. Won't do it again!"

"Ha, ha. Very funny."

She paused, think over something for a moment.

"You know, the only strange thing he did was call me Mabel, but I'm sure that's nothing,"

Mabel looked around the hall, wondering where the silhouette had gone. To her surprise, it was behind her, silently talking with her own. Or so she assumed from the way the two absences of light held themselves. The brunette could not help but giggle once more as Bill's shadow was slapped once more. This time, he tried to hide behind Mabel, nervously peering at her own from behind her shoulders.

"Errr, Shadow," she began awkwardly. "Bill asked me to tell you to-"

_"Your rooms?"_A voice hissed, finishing her thoughts. _"I figured as much. This way."_

Mabel gasped in surprise at the almost hissing whisper of the shadow. He didn't sound very much like his master, but if one really listened they might hear a few similar notes. Dipper stared at her in curiosity. Evidently he could not hear what it was saying to her.

"You can speak!"

_"Yes, my Human-Speak is very good. What about your friend over there?" _It asked, gesturing to Mabel's silhouette.

Her own cross her arms and replied in her own hiss;

_"Shadows are supposed to be seen, not heard. That's why we're shadows, and not little children. We're supposed to be silent watchers of the world, not speaking unless dire."_

_"I think learning your most likely beautiful name would be a dire situation."_

_"No way creep. But I suppose you're going to tell me yours?"_

_"Of course. How else would you know what wonderful name your dream-shadow possesses?"_

_"Can you see why he's been slapped twice in the past while?" _She asked, resuming her stance behind her owner.

"Anyways, leading the way Shadow?"

It nodded, taking on it's silent state again.

"What was that about?" Dipper asked.

"They talk." She cheerfully replied, following the shadow down the halls.

Dipper shook his head, wondering what that was supposed to mean. He only heard their whisper-like hissing, not any words! He reminded himself to ask more on this later. For now he'd just have to let the absence of light lead them down the halls, hoping it wasn't in too mischievous of a mood.


	7. Chapter VII

**Read & Review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Surprisingly, the shadow led them to their rooms with little to no trouble. Dipper curiously looked around his own room. It had a blue and silver theme to it, and was fairly large as well. There was a door leading to a bathroom, and another with a latch on it which connected his room to Mabel's.

A queen sized bed was off to the side of one wall, a stripped silver and navy blue cover toping it. The wall across from the bed had a fire-place that nearly covered all of the wall. Blue flames, not unlike the ones Bill often used filled the grate, giving off an intense heat, even from where he stood several meters away.

But what really drew his attention were the three large book cases placed against a wall, next to a desk and chair. He quickly inspected the desk, finding five empty spiral note books, a ruler, a mathematical compass, pens in red, blue, and black, pencil, a sharpener, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and for some reason, a Latin to English dictionary. Flipping through one of the note books, the younger twin found a small message inside it.

"For writing your notes and or observations. " Dipper muttered to himself, reading the note. "One of the bookshelves bookshelves is empty until you want certain volumes. Write down the title, author, or topic on the scrap of paper there, and it will show."

The young man looked over at the empty shelf, now very intrigued at the prospects. He picked up the scrap of paper, and on a whim, writing the name of one of his favourite novels. He watched in amazement as the letters glowed gold, and the copy slowly materialized on the shelf. He picked it up in surprise, fanning through the familiar words.

_They looked from pig to man, and man to pig again, but it was already impossible to tell which was which._

"Fantastic!"

What if he could get the journals in to his mind as well? He eagerly wrote down the specifics, hope rising in him as he watched the letters glow. Then, the copy appeared on the highest shelf, and he quickly reached up to it. Sure enough, he held he familiar crumbling volume of journal three in his hands.

He stared down at the gold plated hand, letting the sense of familiarity wash over him. He had never seen his copy of the fabled books after Stan had taken it from all those years ago. The boy eagerly opened it, but a groan of dismay crossed his lips.

"I-It's empty!" He moaned.

All of the pages were blank, no traces of ink, even the pages were not numbered! He ruffled through the pages despondently, hoping for something, anything. He froze, watching in amazement as only one page remained normal. It was one he had read and reread over the summer months he had owned it, staring and wondering until that one rainy day.

Bill's entry remained unchanged. The floating black eye of providence staring back at him from the blood splattered pages. Well, almost everything was unchanged. There was a small message under one of the ciphers.

_You think I wouldn't have tried this already? _

Dipper sighed. He knew it was too good to be true! He decided he may as well make use of the supplies, not knowing how long he would be left in his room. He sat down at the desk, pulling out the first note book with the message in it.

The young man went over his options. He should decide on a few books shouldn't he? Perhaps a few basic psychology to even out the score with Mabel, and if Bill had anything on the life span of a demon, that could easily help him understand the problem as well.

He didn't think that he would have much time for his own reading, but just in case, he listed a few of his favourite books he could read over with out getting tired of them. After a few minutes of thinking everything over, he had a decent list of books. Then, he went over the specifics of what he wanted, so he could get the best information possible.

Soon enough, the shelf was buckling under the weight of all the books he had summoned. To his surprise, one of the books appeared on the desk with yet another note.

_I don't have any volumes on demons, but the Shadows are an interesting read._

Dipper picked up the large, green cloth-bound book. It had golden fastenings, almost reminding him of the journals. But, this volume had a title inscribed on the front and side.

Entia de Regnorum de Umbra. Beings of the Realms of Shadow

William Cipher

"He wrote a book?" Dipper wondered out loud. "Just for is ego? Or something else?"

He carried the volume over to his bed. He was about to open it, but paused. The young man took his empty copy of Three, staring down at it. Suddenly, he took a sharp intake of breath, and threw it in to the fireplace. He grimly watched as the fragile parchment curled in to ashes, and the metal bits slowly began to darken and melt. The blue flames changed to a darker shade as the gold melted, growing even hotter. Once only ash remained, it grew back down to it's usual blue bell tone.

With the book out of his conscience, he returned to the other book. Curiously, the opened the tome, looking at the illustrations on the creamy paper of the front page. Dipper got a feeling from this book that it was one of the few rarities you could open to any page, and would be satisfied with what he read. He did exactly so, opening to the third chapter.

* * *

_**III. The Purpose of the Shadow**_

_Shadows are startlingly loyal and protective beings. Often times, they remain as silent sentinels for their owners. They have the power of speech, and are fluent in all the languages I tested them in, Latin being their strongest point. But, unless one possesses a shadow of their own, their speech will sound like nonsensical hissing. Even those who can understand what they are saying still describe their voices as being a hissing whisper. Despite their natural ease for speech, shadows rarely speak. They often state that they should be seen, but not heard, because normal shadows are not known to talk._

_Shadows will fight for their master's life and guard them with a zealously protective nature. While they seem to be benign, they will not hesitate to do everything in their power to defend their master if they view it as a threat. It is not clear why they do so, and my questions have always been shot down with the same silent response whenever I have asked. _

_As read in the first chapter, shadows spend their entire life time with their master, first emerging as the baby is free from the womb, and meets the light for the first time. They grow and mature with their owners, holding on to their hidden emotions. (Note: See p. 23) Thus, a strong bond will be formed between the two. It is unknown where shadows go when their master dies. So, one could assume they die as well, and try to prevent this for as long as they can._

_Whether they have some sort of ulterior move, or are simply kind beings is a mystery. And will most likely remain one for the rest of eternity._

* * *

Dipper paused his reading, mulling something over. The line about hidden emotions... Had Bill told the truth when he had denied his claims? The young man fanned through the pages to the recommended number, quickly reading through it. He gasped, frantically reading to himself;

"Shadows' personalities are based on the hidden emotions of their owners. They will act out, often doing things their master would like to, but would never do. Noting this, it is often people with a shadow that find love with those who have one themselves. This is due to the hidden feelings for said person showing in the beings. Shadows have never made mistakes in this area, and never will. Shadows mate _for life?!"_

This was enough to send Dipper in to a protective frenzy over Mabel. Hidden feelings? Mabel wore her heart on her sleeve! Didn't she? What could his cheerful sister possibly be hiding? It simply wasn't possible. Bill, he could belive because the demon would obviously have to suppress some emotions if he had to go through with all the evil demonic things he did. But Mabel?

And what was that thing about the shadows getting together? They could basically predict when their masters would get together, they would know because they would be mates as well?! That would mean they'd have to get along right? Mabel's had slapped his every time he came near, so at least he was reassured in that area...

Well, he could see why the demon would lie about the emotions of the shadow. If it were to do something, and they knew why he'd begin to feel vulnerable. Perhaps he would keep this knowledge secret for now. The last thing he need was him getting mad by his discovery.

At the reminder more questions rose in his mind, and Dipper knew he would be reading for a very long time in order to absorb all the information. Well, he had the time.

* * *

Bill cackled with a maniac intensity as the room continued to burn around him. He could not believe it! He had succeeded in getting the Pines Twins to make a deal with him! After all the people he had returned to and asked for their help, it was them! Not even Gideon was that willing! He had promised the boy a way out of his mind, but that didn't mean it had to be a safe one! Not only that, he hadn't thought ahead to say he wanted it for his sister as well! Of course, he didn't want to leave her here, trapped inside his mind, but it was still a point he'd bring up to him.

The demon continued to laugh as the flames grew brighter. An imaginary Pines family and friends, along with Gideon appeared in the fire, all silently screaming as they stood there in place. Revenge would certainly be most sweet, and while it was a dish best served cold he still imagined them burning in the fire.

He would certainly show Stanford for all these years, starting with the people he was closest to. He snapped his fingers, and all of the Pines family friend's turned in to ash. Each little death would remind Stan that it wasn't long until it was his turn, and by then, he would be wishing he was dead. Dipper and Mabel would be next, tragically passing away before the old man's eyes as they finally returned back home after helping him.

The demon turned to the twins, preparing to get rid of the figments of his imagination as well. But before he could do anything, he was stopped by the terrified and broken-hearted expression of the fake Mabel. The demon tried to snap out of it, but couldn't. He figured he knew why as he realized that his shadow had been tapping him on the shoulder.

"What?!" He roared to the absence of light.

The silhouette cowered slightly, trying to tell him to stop before he burned out. The blond ignored him and resumed with the fire, once again laughing to himself. His shadow tried throwing a cup of water at him, but it did nothing to snap out of his reverie. The being observed as he tried to get rid of the female Pines Twin once more, but turned away as she continued to stare at him with that same broken expression. Then, an idea struck the silhouette. He vanished from the room, certainly hoping it would work.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mabel was laying on her bed, trying to decide on a name for her shadow. She and the being were interrupted as there was a frantic knocking at the door. The young woman still didn't like the idea of having the power to command the being, but this time she asked;

"Can you see who it is?"

The dark nodded and curiously went over to the door, where whatever is was continued to knock on the door. She slipped through the underside of the door, and returned a moment later. The being pointed to the door, and then made a slapping motion once more. Mabel thought on it for a moment before realizing that it was Shadow.

The brunette got up to open the door. As soon as she did, the shadow practically attacked her, grabbing her wrist and frantically dragging her down the hall way. The young woman was trying to keep up, and probably would have fallen over if not for her own shadow steadying her as they speed down the halls.

Soon, Mabel began to recognize where they were in the building, near the first room where she had made the deal. A chill ran down her spine as she heard Bill's insane laughter float through the air. What was he doing? Before she could try to figure out what was going on, the shadow opened the door to the door and promptly pushed her inside;

_"Stop him before he hurts himself!"_

_"Me?!"_

_"He won't hurt you! Now quick before he drains himself!"_

The being shut and locked the door behind her. Instantly Mabel was overwhelmed with the blaze of the fire, the heat strongly contrasting the cold hallways. In the middle of all the fiery mayhem was Bill, who was still laughing, each breath of air he took making the fire grow larger. Flames began to burn closer to Mabel's feet, she backed away trying to reach the door handle, but it wouldn't budge.

"B-Bill!" She stuttered in alarm.

For the first time, the demon turned to face her. The lopsided grin on his face faded away.

"W-what are y-you doing?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"S-shadow locked me in t-the room and told me t-to stop y-you before you hurt yourself."

The demon looked at her incredously.

"You're real?" He asked.

"As real as I can be." She weakly stated

The flames died down, leaving the room unscathed. The blond was heavily leading against his desk, rubbing his eyes, panting as he tried to catch his breath.

"Ugh, apparently I can't handle my powers as well as I used to."

"What are you talking about?"

"Human bodies equal not good at conducting demonic powers. It was a mistake to make both deals so close together. I still feel like I can run five million triathlons."

Mabel took a cautious step closer to the demon, still shaken.

"Like a sugar rush?"

"Yes, except I won't crash for a long time and feel like making some stupid, but evil choices. It was why I was trying to do something that would waste a lot of my energy."

"And how did that work out for you?"

"Not well." He said through gritted teeth, remembering how he was already planning on betraying the Pines.

He thanked evil that for whatever reason he had refrained from hurting Mabel. Why had Shadow left Mabel to do it rather than doing it himself? It wouldn't have been too difficult for the silhouette instead of putting her in imminent danger. Come to think of it, where was the pesky thing?

"Shooting Star, where's Shadow?" He asked with a hint of a growl in his voice. "I'd like to have a word with him."

The brunette noticed this and came to the being's defence.

"It's not his fault, he just didn't want you to get hurt. After all, were you really going to listen to him?"

The demon reddened at her light reprimand, and shook his head. He took a seat at the desk and Mabel followed, curiously taking in his reaction to her words.

"It's not like I would have been hurt anyways." He grumbled.

"Bill, you're not going to get mad at him are you?" She asked softly.

The demon tried to not let her tone and puppy eyes get to him. He shook his head slightly and sarcastically replied;

"No Shooting Star, I am not going to get mad at him putting you, the person whom I have made a very important deal with in potential danger."

"Well it's not his problem if you wouldn't listen to him then! He was concerned for you! He's just a little kid in need of attention."

Typical Mabel attempting to defend anything remotely innocent. He was slightly impressed by her strong roots to her moral compass. It was an admirable trait. But the demon suddenly realized the those were his emotions she was describing! He drew himself up, trying to correct the young woman. Yet she was still talking.

"He _is _Bill. Why do you think he's constantly causing mischief? When you isolate yourself from everyone, he is too. If you stopped being such a hedgehog he'd behave more often."

The demon inwardly scowled at her analysis. Instead, he ignored what she had said and asked;

"A hedgehog?"

Mabel shrugged.

"It's a fitting description. You're a spikey person in order to keep from getting hurt."

"What?! I'm not spikey! I'm just..." The blond faded off, trying to find a good adjective.

Mabel gave him a charming smile. He glared at her in return.

"I think you should go clean up and get some rest now." The blond commanded in a steely tone. "We have work to be done later."

The brunette took this as him dismissing her before she continued to push it. The young woman exited the room, and closed the door behind her. Bill sighed and slouched in his seat. He sure had said a mouthful when he said that she had a gift for studying people. But being lonely and isolated, that was ridiculous! Why would he ever feel isolated, alone, no mutual relationships with anyone in his entire life time...

But he was most certainly not spikey! He just refused to keep in the company of others because he knew no one could fully be trusted. Because as a demon, no one would ever trust you, so it was normal to return the favour. Because demons were meant to be lonely

Bill realized what he had just admitted to.

"I'm not isolated." He quietly insisted to himself.

The demon jumped as there was a shy knock at the door.

"Come in."

His shadow hesitantly opened the door and slunk in to the room. Slowly, he floated over to him with his head staring down at the floor. Clearly, he was trying to look as small and pitiful as possible to gain his sympathy for acting out. It would peer up at him every now and then before staring back down at the carpet once more. Bill sighed as Mabel's words returned to his mind.

"You don't have to apologize for it." The man sighed, "That is unless you've done something else that I'm unaware of."

The silhoutte eagerly looked up at him, but with a hint of disbelief.

"I'm serious." He muttered, rubbing his temples.

The blond was surprised as the absence of light suddenly flew over to him and gave a crushing bear hug. He squirmed slightly under the cold being's embrace.

"You're. Choking. Me." He gasped.

The being let go of him and gave a sheepish shrug. Bill narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his opaque image.

"You've been more hyper than usual lately." He stated.

Shadow rubbed the back of his neck, trying to act like he didn't know what the demon was talking about. The demon crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

_"It's better I don't tell you. You wouldn't want it floating around in your conscience."_

"Shadow." He warned.

_"Fine! You're not as lonely as you think you are! You couldn't bring yourself to hurt her, so I got her to stop you! It even worked!"_

His silhoutte suddenly vanished, leaving him with it's cryptic obscurity. Bill sighed and shook his head again. What was the pesky thing talking about?

Well yes he had not hurt the Mabel of his imagination, but that was just because he couldn't really imagine it. It had nothing to do with the fading light in her eyes, or the way she shook her head in denial like she couldn't believe it. Like she had lost faith in him, felt betrayed. It was not because for the first time in years it made him feel guilty. No, it was just because he could not picture her dying like that, a small chink in his imagination. Nothing a little rest couldn't fix.

He was perfectly sure of it. Nothing more, nothing less.


	8. Chapter VIII

**I've been getting a lot of questions about where I'm taking this story. I think I had explained on the original author's note for the first chapter in 1000YOM, but left it out here. Anyways, this story is my break from the norm, and a science experiment. I'm toying with my writing, while making less drama at the same time. I know I was getting tired of it. The romance in this story is going to build a lot faster as well, with only a few yet to be introduced obsticales in the way.**

**Read & Review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Hirsch's Gravity Falls. No matter how much I wished I did.**

* * *

Bill looked between the Pines twins, deciding something for a moment. They were standing outside a staircase that headed up and out of sight in the grey halls. These particular stairs were enchanted so only he could go up them. Or if he chose to, he could take someone with him. But that didn't mean they could enter any time they wanted to after that. He had taken no chances in keeping his own memories locked away from anyone who had the gall to try and enter his mind let alone go through his memories.

"Right then ground rules. First if all, these stairs will not let you up with out my permission and reading your intentions. Don't try to go up here with out me. You will seriously regret trying to. Second, use your judgment to decide which memories to view. Anything overly personal, and again you get it. We're not where to look through my memories anyways, we're here to find some.

"Third, you will noticed a very chained and locked up door. If you some how did manage to open it, death would not come quickly. And it wouldn't be at my hands either. So what I'm trying to say is; common sense! You're in the cranium belonging to the Master of the Mind. I'll know right away if you do something you shouldn't, _especially _if you see something you shouldn't have."

Dipper and Mabel nodded gravely at his warnings, both having full intent to come out of this alive. Bill's posture became a little less tense after this, and he resumed his speech.

"Right then. Today will be a practice if you will. I'll pick a memory and let you two navigate it, maybe find a few things for me. I want to see how you work as a team, and on your own. From there we'll be able to figure out how we're going to find my memories."

He offered Mabel his arm, to which she declined once again, and he pretended to shrug off. Then, he lead the twins up the narrow rickety stair case, the higher they climbed, the darker it became around them. The sense of claustrophobia was strong, a chilly feeling swept over Dipper and Mabel. They both shivered and felt goosebumps raise on their skin at the otherworldly sensation.

As soon as it came, it vanished, and suddenly they were at the top of the stairs. The demon pulled out a large ring of keys from his jacket, and selected a fairly plain yellow skeleton key. There was a tiny click as multiple locks shifted, and then the door swung open.

Bill tried to remain indifferent to their mixture of awe and curiosity at the size of the room they were in. Of course he was not comfortable with them here, left with access of every single thing they had ever done. It made him feel very exposed, even though he had not much to fear from them.

The room was easily the size of the Mystery Shack property. Door of all sorts lines the walls, for the most part closed. Though only a select few remained closed for very personal reasons. Each door was labeled under some sort of specific category, ranging from time periods, to other people, to the deals he had made with other people over the years.

They all lead down their own stretch of hall, some connecting as certain memories shared more than one category. His own voice faintly echoed through the whole room. Laughter, conversations, screaming, and very quietly, sobbing. There was no ceiling. Rather, the doors and walls continued to grow higher and higher around them as they vanished farther up in to the sky.

There was a door in plain sight, made of steel. It had very imposing chains wrapped around a series of locks and the door knob. There were black, bolded letters on the front of the door, reading;

**_Most Secret, Keep Out_**

The twins correctly guessed in think that the door was the one he had been talking about earlier, and made a mental note to stay away from it at all costs. Once the full impact of the room had set in on all of them, the demon shook his head slightly and said;

"We'll use a memory you'd already have some background knowledge on. Wait here while I find one."

The demon floated around the room, looking for a certain door. Once he had, he went inside and wandered along the halls. Bill winced as he heard he harsh sounds of Stan's voice echo from one side, Gideon's Southern drawl from another. Dipper and Mabel's voices quietly surfaced every now and then, but not as often as Stan's. Finally, he found the memory he had in mind.

He remembered the spot, then went back to the twins, who were patiently waiting. Not wanting to waste time with walking, he simply just grabbed their arms and teleported them to the spot. They stumbled around a moment, obviously not used to the dizziness.

"You two ready?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Yup."

"Right then! A list of things you need to find! With and with out your sibling." The demon handed them both their own lists.

Dipper gave him a look that seemed to read;

_"A scavenger hunt? Seriously?"_

Bill ignored this and pointed to the silvery door where the memory was. He opened it, letting the twins peer inside of it. There, they saw Gideon on the property outside of the Shack, talking to said demon. A twelve year old Mabel and younger Soos hid in the bushes near by, listening to their conversation in shock.

"Hey this is when Gideon took over the Shack!" Mabel deduced.

"Yes." He agreed, "You can stop raising your hand Pine Tree,"

"What are you-" Dipper paused, realizing out of habit he had raised his hand.

Mabel lightly punched him in the shoulder.

"Ha! I told you that you still did that! You owe me ten bucks!"

"Oww! And anyways, I was wondering, what happens if we mess around with a memory too much? I know it wouldn't affect us now, but what if I went over there and stopped Gideon before he made the deal?"

"Interesting question. Nothing would happen. If you tried to do something to change the outcome, it would be simply be ignored as if you were not there. That being said, you should remain invisible as much as possible. My past self may not always take kindly to you being there, and neither will other individuals. You just need to imagine being invisible for it to happen before you ask. Any other questions?"

"So, we're going to be in a memory where we go in to a memory in Stan's mind?" Mabel wondered.

"You're making me go cross-eyed here Shooting Star. I think what you said is a yes though. Now no more questions before I go crazy... er."

He pushed the twins through the door calling after them;

"Good luck! And remember that I'll be watching you!"

* * *

Dipper and Mabel curiously looked around the memory. They had to wait for their eyes to adjust to seeing colour once more. Then they were able to continue on their way. They both imagined that they were invisible, and insured that the other was as well, the Mystery Twins pulled out their lists, preparing to search for all of the objects the demon had listed.

_Find these objects as a team_

_1. A Nyarf gun_

_2. A candle_

_3. The rug where Stan's safe code memory was hidden_

_4. A bag of Burrito Bites_

_5. Dipper's hat_

Surveying the list, Dipper rubbed his chin. Then, something clicked.

"Mabel, Soos never took those Burrito Bites in to Stan's mind. We need to get them before Bill leaves!"

"And the candles!" She whispered in reply, pointing to the ones in the clearing where Gideon and Bill were.

_"Hmmm, Stan Pines... You know what kid? You've convinced me. I'm sold! I'll help you and return you can help me with something I've been working on! We'll work out the details later!"_

_"Deal!"_

Dipper watched in horror and amazement as his sister ran over to the clearing and promptly grabbed one of the candles. Strangely, as soon as she touched it, the candle vanished. Bill noticed this out of the corner of his eye, and hesitated a moment before shaking Gideon's hand. Then Dipper remembered what Mabel had told him. After this, he vanished in to Stan's mind. He had to get the bag of snack food from Soos.

Dipper cautiously snuck up on the man-child, wondering how many people had actually been forced to rob someone of a bag of snack food. As soon as he touched the bag of food, it vanished, presumably now counted off their list.

Bill saw this as well, delaying his exit for a minute to suspiciously look for the movement. He knew that Soos and Mabel were behind the clearing (The only pink and green in the whole grey world!) but it wasn't them. Perhaps it was one of those annoying Time Anomaly Whatever people with their fancy invisibly off doing their own thing. His eye rested on the spot where Dipper was crouching. Of course all he saw was thin air, but it didn't stop him from being nervous. How many spectra could the demon see in?

Finally his attention was snapped away from the spot as the memory of Gideon impatiently cleared his throat. The all-seeing eye turned back to the pathetically short villain and waved him off;

"Yes, yes. I'm going."

The memory suspiciously looked around the area once more before stating;

_"Well, time to invade Stan's mind! This should be fun! Remember; Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold bye!"_

The demon vanished, and so did everything around them. Suddenly, the twins found themselves inside of Stan's mind with everyone else, standing behind the group as they spoke with Bill. Mabel winced as her twelve year old self's dream boys came to life. She would never admit it as long as there was breath in her body, but maybe they were a bit bright. The young woman turned away from them and pulled out her list. Dipper did the same.

"Well, it won't be hard to get the rug after Bill steals the memory, but where do we get the Nyarf gun?"

The brunette paused for a moment, trying to remember the order of events.

"I shoot the door in to the bottomless pit memory with the gun..." She began slowly, "So we get the rug, then follow myself and the real Soos after Bill. We run in to you, but continue on. I think I dropped the gun when Gideon broke the deal with him..."

"Then we have a long time. And stealing my hat should be easy enough." Dipper mused.

"I don't know Dipping-Sauce. What about the stuff we have to find on our own?"

The twins flipped over their separate slips of paper, where they had their individual lists. The young man's eyebrows rose as he looked his over.

"I only have one thing!"

"Same here." His sister faintly replied.

He noticed this and frowned. Her eyes had grown remarkably wide, and she was sickly pale.

"Mabel, are you ok? What is it?"

"What do you have to find?"

"Just that fake stuffed dodo bird in the hall. It might be difficult because it's floating, but it shouldn't be all that bad. You?"

She swallowed and said;

"I have to steal Bill's hat."


	9. Chapter VIIII

**Oh, to answer your question guest, this is one of those "whenever I feel like it" stories to update.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

_"I have to steal Bill's hat."_

Dipper looked at his sister in astonishment.

"What?! He can't be serious! He'll kill you!"

"Thanks for the reminder Dipper." Mabel replied.

The twins looked between each other helplessly. There was nothing either could to about her finding his hat, she had to do it no matter what. The young man gave his sister a reassuring pat on the shoulders, trying to calm her down.

"I don't think he'd want you dead if you've made a deal with him already." He tried to help.

Mabel sighed, shaking her head.

"I hope you're right."

The twins gave an awkward sibling hug before setting off on their own ways. They planned to meet back up where the rug was at the right time and get their remaining items there was still an hour and a half of this time remaining, so they would have a decent amount to search.

Mabel nervously strode down the Shack hallways looking for signs of the demon. She passed endless memories of Stan. Her great-uncle's voice echoed through the halls, his words lodging themselves in her brain. Unknowingly, she turned down a hall labeled; _Memories of Dipper_.

Now she was met with many of the older Stans. The strange thing was his mind even had his recent memories, despite this version being years in the past. Mabel couldn't comprehend it and didn't want to. She listened to his speech as she travelled down the hall.

At first his words seemed harsh, often telling her brother what to do. But the farther she walked down the hall, the more pride she heard in his voice. Praising him for getting on the school's rugby team, amazed at his latest calculations on how to bring more profit to the Shack while spending less money themselves. His claims of how far he would be able to get in life with everything he could do.

_"I'm proud of ya' kiddo..."_

Finally, she found take no more of the voices. She ran back the way she came, almost crashing in to the memory of her brother. He was sadly walking away, hands in his pockets as a door shut behind him. Mabel didn't care. She slipped in to the memory just to get some peace and quiet.

She was met with Stan and Soos, sitting on the porch as Dipper unsuccessfully chopped wood in the background. The young woman tried to organise her thoughts. Now wasn't the time for wondering about Stan! Nor was it for being jealous of all the praise Dipper began to receive over the years. It had been the same with her the first time she went to Gravity Falls, and he never got jealous! She was just getting a taste of her own medicine. But for seven whole years?!

_"He's really comin' along. When push comes to shove, I'm actually proud of him. Just don't ever tell him that. His head's big enough as it is!"_

Again the young woman could not help it. She gave a sob of frustration. She wanted so badly not to start being jealous of her brother for this she knew what it had felt like for him and she was being selfish, but she just wanted something like that from Stan was well!

Her tears abruptly stopped as she heard a familiar voice.

"Hmmm. I really should iron out some of those detail with crème puff before he becomes suspicious. But first, a temporary doorway outta here."

The young woman curiously peered through a slat in the door, observing as a yellow door suddenly appeared on the wall and Bill floated through it. She jumped from her spot, following him. She needed that hat! The door worked like that of a memory. She touched the other side, and she was suddenly pulled through, back in the same clearing.

It was still raining outside, and Gideon stood under a tree with an umbrella and his volume of the journal. He was looking over his page on Bill, skipping past the warnings on how he was not to be trusted, and how the mortality rate of someone who made a deal with him was not exactly perfect. Far from it really.

"Age is just a number, and so are those." Bill waved off the warnings, announcing his sudden presence.

"Bill! You got the memory?" Gideon expectantly asked.

"I'm working on it. In fact, I have three others doing all the work for me." The demon replied, his bow tie twisting in to what could be considered a smirk,

The albino stomped his foot.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Jeeze kid, when a demon days he's working on it, he's working on it. A deal is a deal after all. Speaking of which, I wanted to bring up a few details on my end."

"Yes, yes." Gideon waved off, not really caring what he had to say.

The demon glared at him before continuing.

"If-" He paused, correcting himself."When you finally get the ultimate power and take Shooting Star as your queen, I want your word on something."

"Didn't I already say you could be my second in command?" The boy haughtily asked.

Bill ignored the clear lie in his voice and instead continued.

"It's not about that. I need you to swear on something close to you. Break this, and you'll die."

"Err, alright. What exactly am I promising?"

"In a few years when you're older, this may make more sense to you but, I want you to swear to never mistreat Shooting Star."

The brunette was so shocked that she gasped out loud. The demon heard her, but this time made no indication of sensing something amiss.

"What are you talking about? I would never do anything to hurt my lil' peach dumplin'!"

"I may be a lot of things kid, but I will never ever violate a woman, anyone like that. If I find out that you have there'll be hell to pay."

"And if I don't agree?"

"I'm not even going to bother mincing my words on this. You agree, or you die. You break your promise, you will die. Understand?"

Gideon nervously nodded.

Mabel did not hear any more of their conversation. She was too shocked to listen. Why would the demon even bother to consider her like that, let alone threaten Gideon with his life? The brunette was left astounded by his actions. She was luck to remember she was supposed to be following the demon just in time. As soon as went through the door, it vanished.

Suddenly, she was frozen in place by a green aura. She got the sensation that she was not longer invisible. A shiver of dread crept down her spine as a voice behind her said;

"Now what do we have here? Perhaps you're the one who's been following me all day?"

"I-I can e-explain." She stuttered.

The demon's expression changed to one that looked vaguely curious.

"You're an older Shooting Star..." He slowly deduced.

"It's Mabel." She corrected.

"Alright then _Mabel. _How come you were following me?"

"I n-need your hat."

"And I need all three journals. Now what are you doing here?"

"I-I'm serious." She stuttered

"And you thought I was just going to give it to you? Why do you need it anyways?" The demon interrogated.

"T-that's why I w-was trying to s-steal it."

"Why are you here?" He growled, holding a flaming fist close to her neck.

"Would you believe me if I told you I was from the future, and you're actually a memory?"

"Considering the fact that you are taller and can now fill out your sweater, nice choice in colour by the way, I'd find that fairly believable."

"So can I have your hat then?"

"By chance do I finally end up destroying synthesized music for good in the future?"

She shook her head.

"Pity. Will giving you this hat do so?"

The young woman hated to lie, but she really had no other choice.

"Yes. It's the key to destroying the Several Times clones as well!"

Bill was clearly not buying it, but still said;

"Well who would have guessed? Pretty interesting place to keep the key to destroying a genre of music. How come it didn't work all the other times I've tried to get rid of it?"

"Because... You... have to be a reformed fan from the brand! Yea... And I'm the chosen one! Sent by my followers in to the past as the ghost of Christmas Future! And you married my pet pig Waddles in the future, and there are flying cars everywhere and ya!"

"You're only what? Eighteen? It only took six years for flying cars to be made?"

Mabel's lies only got more and more fictional as she went on, trying to fumble for an explanation to everything.

"No, I'm nineteen! And yes! It only took that long! Is that not believable? Because in that case I'm from hundreds of years in the future and the seahorses have taken over and you are the Prime Minister of... Canada! Yea! The Prime Minister of Canada! You're still married to Waddles though."

The demon laughed so hard that he began to snort. His hold on Mabel was lost. The little triangle continued to float in the air, clutching his midsection as he doubled over, kicking his feet. Mabel cautiously reached out and touched his hat. It vanished. Instantly Bill stopped laughing.

"Why you little- That hat was one of a kind! If I didn't have the younger version of you to get rid of you'd regret that!"

The snapped his fingers and another hat appeared in it's place. Mabel didn't know whether to laugh or scream. Instead she ran off in the direction of Stan's safe code memory.

* * *

Dipper was already waiting for her there, pacing as he was worried sick. As soon as he saw his sister he rapidly asked her questions, his usual custom when he was nervous for her.

"Relax Dipping-Sauce, everything went fine. Bill said the hat was one of a kind, but he just replaced it once it disappeared. Doesn't really make much sense really. Did you get your thing ok?"

He nodded but still looked nervous.

"Anyways, we still need to wait for them to find the memory. Which should be in a few minutes."

The twins stood in a tense silence as they waited for the group to come down the hall.

_"Like how he hides all of his arrest warrants under the rug in the gift shop?"_

_"But what do we do now? Jinx!"_

_"Ummm, let's just destroy the door before Bill can find it!"_

_"Wait! My big fat arms are great at destroying stuff!"_

_"Boy you kids sure are gullible! I knew you'd lead me straight to the code! It's funny how dumb your are!"_

_"Well, you're a-a stink-face!"_

_"Awesome come back Mabel!"_

_"Don't treat me like a child Zyler!"_

_"Later suckers!"_

Dipper and Mabel waited until they were sure all the memories had gone after Bill before picking up the rug. Dipper looked at the design on it for a moment, wondering where he had seen it before. Like with everything else, it vanished. Now all that was left to find were Dipper's hat and the Nyarf gun. To the twin's surprise, getting the hat was easier done than said. As the twelve year old Dipper walked by them, Dipper imagined a similar hat and swapped it with the memory's who did not even notice.

Now the young woman lead her brother through the halls, trying to remember the direction they had gone in. As they turned a corner, they came face to face with Bill.

"What?! There are two of you?" The demon complained.

Mabel shivered and nodded, while he brother remained frozen to the spot.

"So what are you going to steal this memory next? Or my bow tie? Was stealing my one of a kind top hat not enough?"

"I didn't want to steal it!" She amended. "And besides, you're wearing an exact copy anyways!"

"That's not the point! This hat makes me look isosceles!"

"Unless someone was carrying around a ruler, I don't think they're going to notice." Dipper pointed out.

Mabel squinted for a moment and quietly said;

"You know, he _does _seem sort of isosceles now."

"Mabel!" Her brother whisper-yelled. But he stopped his complaints as he realized what she was doing. Stalling for time! But why?

"Well then again, I always thought that he was, so maybe I'm a little biased on that. You can shift shapes, why can't you become slight more equilateral?"

"Because I'm scalene by a fraction of a millimeter!"

"Oh."

She was silent, trying to think of something else to say before the demon's patience grew too thin and he decided to dispose of them. But her mind drew to a blank. The brunette began to panic as no one said anything. Why hadn't her brother stepped in and said something? All of a sudden, a cyan aura formed around the Mystery Twins, lifting them off the ground and freezing them in place. They both gave cries of dismay, but nothing they did could release them from the hold. Bill laughed at their fright and said;

"Well that got boring quickly! Note to self, get rid of anyone else who may be following me around. Anyways, before you meet your premature fates, I would like my hat back."

The young woman paled as she stared down at the demon's outstretched hand. She didn't have anything to give him let alone the hat she had taken.

"I-I don't h-have it." She timidly said.

Bill's eye widened, and the demon turned a violent shade of glowing red. His fists burst in to dazzling white flames as he screamed;

"You what?!"

The all-seeing eye drew back a hand, preparing to engulf the young woman in the flames. Dipper screamed in terror, and tried to reach for his sister. But just at that moment, a sharp ring echoed through the room. Bill froze. Then, it was as if the twins were watching as a movie reminded. He became his usual yellow self once more and stood to the side of them with the door with Stan's memory in his hand. Dipper and Mabel were set on the ground and the light around them vanished.

By waiting long enough, Mabel had altered the memory, thus it acted like she was never there to begin with, and it continued on it's original way.

The demon's bow tie rang, and he pressed it, displaying a screen on his body, where Gideon stared up at him. The demon glowed yellow for a moment then said;

_"'Yellow?"_

_"Bill! You find the memory with the combination yet?!"_

_"Relax Short Stack, I got it right here!"_

_"Perfect! Tell me the code and we'll fulfill your end of the bargain!"_

_"Finally! It's- you got a pen there? Thirteen...forty-four-"_

The twins anxiously observed as Mabel's memory shot the door in to the bottomless pit. The memory dropped the gun as Bill shattered in to pieces and turned red once more. The twins both made a mad dash for it at the same time, watching as it vanished at their touch.

They both jumped as they heard a soft laugh of amusement behind them. The siblings whirled around, shocked to see the real Bill leaning against the wall as if he owned the place. Well, in a technical sense, the demon did own the place. They were his memories after all.

"Nice work you two. Now if you would so kindly find the door that leads us out of here. The next few memories are something I'd really rather not want you to observe."

"You don't know where the door out of this maze of doors is?!" Dipper asked, waving his arms.

The blond shrugged.

"Of course I know where it is! But do _you_?"

"No! We were in the real world before! How are we supposed to find it?"

Mabel was silent, trying to ignore her brother's ranting as she thought. No, it wouldn't be likely to find the door they were looking for here, especially when they were in a memory about someone else's mind. So how would they get out? Bill obviously knew, but did she? The brunette thought back to all of the things she had seen him do in her whole experience with the demon. Especially most recently, where he had created his own door out of the mind, and back to real life.

"Could we imagine our way out?" She hesitantly asked. Normally it was Dipper who did the problem-solving, while her own ideas tended to be shot down or declared far too elaborate or impractical. To her surprise, the blond nodded, and gave her a tiny smile.

"And Shooting Star wins the tie-breaker!" The demon mimicked in an announcer's voice, holding a microphone.

He imagined a door, showing them the way out. To their surprise, rather than leading back to his own hall of memories, they were back inside his own study. Right away Mabel's shadow reunited with her owner, worried sick about what might happen to her owner. Bill's calmly wandered over as well, but kept a safe distance from her own shadow lest she feel the need to warn him about personal space again.

"I'm fine." She assured it.

After this she calmed down, but still seemed to be glaring at Bill every now and then. The demon gave a nervous laugh at this and said;

"Anyways, your evaluations. I'll go over your separate ones separately, and your team one with both of you."

Dipper shrugged, deciding he could wait to hear what the demon had to say about him. The young man went in to the grey hallways, shutting the door behind him. Then, the blond pulled out a few notes and cleared his throat.

"Again, I'm amazed at your skills Mabel. You recalled everything correctly, and held your cool even when I sent you on a more dangerous path. And I was impressed when you managed to distract myself long enough to alter the memory as well." He paused, wondering if he should tell her that he would have stopped himself if she was in too much danger. He decided against it, not wanting to stray from the next topic at hand. "Mabel, when you were walking down that hallway with all of Stan's memories of Dipper, what happened?"

Mabel stiffened in her spot. If not for this gesture and the panicked look in her eyes, Bill thought he might have actually fallen for her lie.

"Oh. I was just, you know freaked out because I had to find a way to get your hat from you."

The demon stared at her in clear puzzlement. She had gone from being a terrible liar to a phenomenal one, clearly wanting him to drop the subject.

"Mabel, I am fully capable of entering your mind to figure out the truth. If you don't tell me, there's going to be an issue when it happens again."

Mabel stared at him with her largest puppy eyes possible, batting her eyelashes as she pathetically tried to convince him to not make her tell. Again the blond was stricken over with that strange feeling of wanting to give in and let her escape scot-free. They stared each other down, both wanting the other to cave. The young woman realized it would be inevitable for her to answer, but prolonged it.

Staring down at her hands, she quietly explained;

"It's just Stan, the way he's been favoring Dipper over me. I'm just feeling green I guess."

The demon frowned, recalling the way Stan had addressed her all those times he had shown up to the Shack. Of course he had brushed it off, but was it really bothering her that much?

"You don't want to be jealous?" He asked, "Even though you have every right to be?"

"Well, it's not fair to Dipper though. After all, it was the same with him the first time he came to Gravity Falls."

"But has it been ever since?"

"Well... no. But Dipper would just think it was our usual sibling rivalry. Even though he beats me in pretty much everything now. Sports, school, attention..." She gave a sigh.

"So you're telling me for the past six years he's clearly been Stan's favorite? And you don't think your brother hasn't noticed?"

"Seven-"

"Pshhh, like that's any better! You just don't want to send another blow to your relationship with your brother, so you're keeping quiet?"

"Well yes but-"

"It's impossible to reason with Stan? You can handle it? Dipper understands? It won't last all that long?"

For the first time she stared up from her lap, glaring at him. Softly but venomously she stated;

"I thought I was the one who had an annoying trait of psychoanalyzing people."

"You are. But as the master of the mind, I have a bit of experience under my belt."

Instantly Bill regretted saying this. The expression on Mabel's face told him exactly what she was going to say next. He knew she was in a defensive mood, after all, he had brought this side of her out, he was asking for it. But it didn't stop him any less from bristling as she darkly retorted;

"The same master of the mind who doesn't even realize the goings ons in his own?"

Bill knew she didn't mean to say it right away. The self-loathing registering for a moment, but pretending to be anger at him. Mabel Pines was never one for such hurtful and direct insults. His managing to drive her to such uncharacteristically cruel lengths only proved how threatened she was by his own observations. Even more than when she had made her own of his. Granted they were polite and cute in her usual expected manner, but he had forced the answers to the light.

None of this stopped him from growling in his most dangerous tone;

"Get. Out."

The brunette got up and tried to leave at record speed, but he stopped her with a quick;

"And give this to your brother."

He did not even bother to hand the paper. Rather, he crumpled it up in to a ball and hurled it at her. Mabel caught it, but winced at the force impacting her hand. She silently vanished from the room, leaving the demon to furiously stew over his thoughts.


	10. Chapter X

**Grrr, I really don't like this chapter for some reason. It was a pain to write, and I feel like there's something I messed up on. Oh well, tell me if you find something that seems off.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Bill gave a frustrated sigh, looking down at his twitching hands. It was taking all of his self-control not to burst in to flames, screaming as he tore apart the room with his bare hands. Instead, he took a very deep breath and calmly pulled his hat off of his head. The demon took another large breath, and suddenly unleashed a bloodcurdling scream of wrath in to the silk hat, considerably muffling it.

The blond carefully placed it on his head once more, and slumped down in to his desk. Bill rested his head against it, covering his head with his arms as he tried to keep from loosing it. What the hell had he been thinking asking the twins to help him? Why hadn't he just searched for the memories himself?! He had the time, at least another eighty years!

All because of some stupid nostalgia. He would be lying if he said he didn't want to know what his life had been like before he was a demon. Rich? Dirt poor? When did he live, where did he live? Did he have a family? People who dare he wonder, cared for him? It didn't seem likely if he had agreed to become a demon. What had driven him to such lengths? Did he really want the Pines to know?

Asking those brats to do something so personal for him was a horrid mistake. The only thing he had gained was more reign over his powers by making those deals and a little extra time. But that was hardly anything as he suffered through more uncontrollable energy in his pathetic human body!

He had asked the Pines hoping their skills would leave him more time to see his life, but it was just getting too close for comfort. The demon couldn't even break the deal with them either! He was stuck with them here helping him until they had plucked apart every last fragment of his mind.

He didn't want people around him, he wanted his isolation! He couldn't just let them become close! They would use it against him somehow, turn him weak like what so many human beings did to each other. Familiar ties prevented one from doing things, it left them wrapped around someone's pinky finger. A tool for manipulation.

And then there was _her_. She seemed to be out to get him with her stupid good intentions and ever cheerful façade. Giving him more strongly felt _emotions_! He was swinging through moods like some angst-ridden teenager! Perhaps he did have some feelings about her that he was willing to deny, but they weren't really worth his time or seeing if she could reciprocate them.

Bill was struck down with an impossible revelation at that very moment. His anger and frustration instantly vanished as a scheme began to form. One unlike any he had ever thought up before. He would _let _Mabel see. Gain her sympathy as she continued to study him. If he couldn't drive her away, he could draw her in too close for comfort. Use her goody-two shoes intentions against her. To the point where she was nothing more than the perfect way to get back at Stan.

But first, he would need her trust. He knew she was clearly upset after snapping at him, why not let her see how much she had put him through with her words? A lopsided smirk slowly began to creep across his face. Yes, he had the perfect idea in mind. Where was that useful shadow of his anyways...

* * *

Mabel was spread out across the pink and green striped duvet, brushing through her hair as she tried to calm her thoughts. Why had she even debated saying that? Even at her worst she had never hurt someone as badly as she had by taunting his soft spot! How could she? First not helping him as he lay there in the mud, and now this! What was happening to her? Was she turning mean on purpose? Why, why, why?

Her teary rant was interrupted by a small knock at the door. A shiver of dread ran through her. She hoped it wasn't him, there was no way she could face him after this! The young woman looked over at her shadow, silently asking her to see who was there. It did so with a nod, slipping through the door and returning a moment later. It opened the door, letting in the ingeniously named Shadow. The silhouette looked over at her in concern, and then said something to her own.

"I'm not going to talk to him if that's what you want to know." Mabel informed him.

Shadow shook his head, indicating that it was not what he had in mind. Instead, it gestured to the door, wanting her to follow him. Mabel looked at her silhouette, who shrugged in reply, deeming that it was safe enough to follow him.

The brunette let him lead her down the drafty hallways, passing innumerable paintings, hundreds of doors, all forming the confused hallways. It was almost impossible to tell where they were going due to the lack of any windows or landmarks through the vast expanse of his mind.

But a few of the paintings hung on the walls began to seem familiar to her. A small flowering glen deep in a forest, a hilly green pasture, a Victorian styled manor. The older twin noticed all of the frames had the same number engraved with a palette knife in the left corner. 1861...

Then she realized where they were heading. The stair case leading towards the room with all of his memories. Mabel stopped walking right away, stating;

"Shadow! We can't go there! He told us we couldn't! He'd know!"

The silhouette shook his head, indicating it was perfectly safe.

_"Bill's all talk. And you're right, he is a hedgehog. You'll be fine."_

Mabel looked at him doubtfully. She had ignored all of her sense of adventure, wanting to keep her word about not getting too nosey. After all, that was a serious invasion of his privacy! Just wander around his memories like that was hardly fair to him, especially after she had already hurt him once.

To her surprise, her own silhouette nudged her closer to the stairs. Mabel looked between the two beings, wondering what they had up their sleeves. It seemed to her that if she didn't agree, they'd just drag her along. With a final decision, the woman sighed. There would be hell to pay, but it didn't look like she would be able to get out of this situation otherwise.

Nervously, she began her ascent of the stairs wondering how she was even going to pass through the enchantments the demon had warned her about. As the woman slowly reached the top with nothing happening to her, she was left surprised. Although she could see neither of shadows in the near darkness, but knew Bill's was ahead of her because of the cold spot lingering there. He pulled out the same ring of keys his master had been holding earlier and gave to him, successfully unlocking the door.

Cautiously, Mabel stepped through. She stared up and around the endless room of memories. Her ears were met with the sound of Bill's voice from all ends. Laughing, bragging, screaming, snarling. Flashes of colour from the opened doors, dimly lighting the dreary room solely composed of black and greys. Mabel stared around hopelessly, wondering what she would do now that she was surrounded by his memories on all sides. Her fear started to wane though, the more she spent observing the room.

Her reverie was drawn to a close as Shadow tapped her on the shoulder and gently tugged her in the direction of a certain door. Written on the arch way were the words;

_Recent Memories, Temporarily Under Construction_

The absence of light pulled out the set of keys and selected a key with a little design of a hammer and a hard hat on the silver key Iin to the lock, the door easily swung open for the group. He lead the way, making sure Mabel was still following him every now and then.

The path was certainly under construction. Wall paper was peeled off in places, floorboards and nails stuck up, and countless construction supplies lay around, ranging from tacks, paint, and carpets to scaffolds and a jackhammer. If Mabel was not so interested in all of the objects laying in the hall, she would have noticed a partially finished door.

Behind it a memory of Bill, only seconds in the past could be seen, he was in his office, staring in to a mirror, which displayed to him Mabel and the shadows as they traversed through his mind. The same malicious smile was on his face while he watched, impressed at how easily his shadow was leading her on.

Instead, the young woman continued onwards. Finally, the small group of trespassers came to a halt. Shadow pointed to a door. Mabel walked closer to it, debating whether she should really observe it or not. The being nodded, wanting her to see it. The brunette took a step closer, but noticed neither of them did.

"What about you two?"

Mabel watched in astonishment as her own shoved the demon's own silhouette towards the memory. Instead of passing through it, he crashed in to it like it was a solid. The being rubbed his shoulder and gave a shrug that seejed to ask her own;

_"Was that really necessary?"_

_"Of course it was." _Her own seemed to reply.

Mabel took a deep breath, steeling her nerves once more.

"So I have to do this on my own."

The two nodded. Rolling her shoulders, she tried to cheer herself up by asking;

"Well what's the worst that could happen?"

Mabel pulled herself through the memory, making sure to imagine herself invisible and more stealthy again. She allowed curiosity to wash over her as she saw where she was. It was nearly all white around her. No floors, no walls, she simply floated around in the air. But that was not the only thing. Clocks of every shape and size hovered as well. Digital, analog, grandfather clocks, a watch, cuckoo clocks all ticked away.

In the middle of it all was a floating desk. Bill in his demon form sat there, absently staring out in to space. Suddenly, there was a small burst of bloody-red flames on the desk, in it a letter. Bill snapped out of whatever he was thinking about and pulled out the envelope from the fire, which vanished as he did so.

Mabel curiously floated over to him, wondering what the letter contained. The demon seemed to be thinking this as well, and curiously albeit suspiciously held it. Finally, the all-seeing eye deemed it was probably safe to open it. The eye of providence did so, but as he did so, he was the eye of providence no more. A dazzling bright flash of yellow and red light surrounded him, and he was suddenly human.

He had grown taller and more lanky, and he suddenly found his mind super-charged with all the senses he did not possess before. Bill gave a startled yelp, tumbling out of his chair. The blond hung on to it , unable to prevent his falling in to the white nothing.

He clutched at his throat with one hand, startled as his chest and throat began to ache. He began to see blurs, and suddenly realized that he needed to breath. He took in a deep inhale, amazed as the pain left and his sight cleared. After a little struggling with trying to regulate his breathing and letting his new heart slow down before it broke a valve, Bill managed to pull himself back up on to his chair.

"What the _hell _was that?!"

He imagined a mirror, and gasped in horror as he was met with a human face. Pointed yet sanguine features, a hint of blond stubble, a goatee, and _two _vibrant yellow human irises dilated for a moment, changing from his vast number of spectra to the limited ones of the human eye. Bill stared down at his now pale hands in awe. What had just happened to him?!

Naturally, the tried changing back, but nothing happened. Instantly his eyes narrowed at the seemingly innocent letter on the desk. He picked it up, furiously reading over it's contents. Mabel peered over his shoulder, staring down at the type written letters.

_Mr. Cipher,_

_It has come to my attention that your contract regarding your employment by my hands will expire with in the next year, specifically on the eighteenth of June. I have taken it upon myself to warn you by that time, your life span will come to a close. But, you have been the prime example of everything a demon should be over your time, and it has been decided you should be allowed to at least be given a human life span, on one condition. You just make a deal with two of the people listed on the back in order to be granted your extra decades of life. If not, your powers will slowly wane until you are nothing more of a pile of dust. Do a demon proud and please try. _

_See you in Hell,_

_-N. Atas_

Bill's expression changed from pure wrath, to confusing, to disbelief, to true horror at the letter's contents. He flipped over the back reading over the names. He groaned as he read them, and slumped against his desk. Turned over of the other side were only four names.

_Dipper Pines_

_Gideon Gleeful_

_Mabel Pines_

_Stanford Pines_

Beneath it a clipping of paper was attached. The top half was written in a language Mabel was not familiar with, but if she were to take a guess, it was Latin. The brunette knew she had to remain silent, but what was written in English underneath made her softly gasp in a mixture of pity and horror.

_ I **William Cipher **hereby agree to surrender all memory and physical appearance of my human life. In return, I will receive the powers of the mind, becoming the next master of the dreamscape for the next one hundred fifty seven years, so mote it be._

Bill did not even acknowledge that he had heard her. He was too lost in his own distraught thoughts. Mabel did not want to see any more of what the memory had to offer, what a god awful way to discover something as huge as that! What had been running through his mind? How badly he had messed up? Anger? Remorse? Regret?

The young woman imagined a door, and stepped back in to the hall. Before she could say anything to Shadow, or demand to leave, the being pushed her through another door.

* * *

This time, Mabel found her somewhere dark, and cold. Steely rock walls met her on all sides, barbed wire topping the fences. The ground beneath her was little more than solidly packed earth. The sky was a dark, cloudy grey. To her absolute terror, people dressed in neon-orange prison uniforms all wandered around the penitentiary's recreational yard. Picking fights, gambling, conducting secret plans.

Off to the side, a young man sat leaning against a wall, staring off at the forest that surrounded the area. It only took his long white-blond shoulder-length hair and chubby cheeks to tell her who it was. She was in the same prison where Gideon was imprisoned. But why?

Just then, another man in a prison uniform walked up to him. Gideon looked away with disinterest. It was probably just another one of his fans. Even in prison the men still liked him, even more so now that he was one of them. But the familiar blond told Mabel who he was right away as well.

"I have to admit, orange is your colour Short-Stack." Bill quietly voiced.

The albino looked up in alarm and fright.

"B-Bill?!"

"The one and only." He replied.

"What are you doin' here demon?"

"Just checking up on my least favourite breaker of deals. Well favourite as well. There's no other living competition for you to go up against."

"Very funny?" The former child star asked, unnerved.

"Thank you. Anyways, by chance could interest you in a way out of here?"

Gideon crossed his arms.

"Forget it. I've already got an escape plan."

"What about a way to get back at the Pines?"

"That's covered as well."

"All three journals!" Bill offered, crossing his fingers.

"No."

"I can make you ruler of the universe."

"The burger franchise or the real thing?"

"The burger franchise." The demon muttered. "What about the mayor of Gravity Falls?"

Gideon yawned and boredly said;

"Drop it demon. I don't need you messin' up my plans."

Suddenly, the blond hoisted him up by the collar of his uniform.

"What if I told you I didn't have a choice in the matter?" He snarled.

"Why, I'd tell ya' ta' look out."

"What? Why?"

"This is why."

**_Crack!_**

Bill gave a startled scream of pain as he felt his nose snap, and blood start to flow from it. The demon collapsed on the ground, tenderly holding on to his broken nose. A brutish looking man off to the side cracked his knuckles and growled;

"Don't you dare mess with lil' Gideon like that ever again!"

He turned to Gideon, who patted him on the shoulder.

"Aww, thanks Snake Eye, you are such a lil' sweet heart!"

"Anything for you Gideon!" The man screamed.

Mabel winced at the sight looking down at the blond. He lay there bleeding on the ground for another few moments, then vanished back to the dreamscape, knowing that was one less person willing to make a deal with him.

She left the memory behind, sadly reflecting over all the things the demon had been through. She could now see even more clearly why this would make him snap. Just a simple letter telling the man his whole entire life had been a lie, and he would never be able to discover the truth. A letter of all things! And the startling transformation he went through, completely clueless as to what was going on, all the raw emotions seeping through.

Then, she realized something; He would have died on the eighteenth of June the next year. It was the next year, just a few days ago it had been the eleventh. By making a deal with him she had saved his life for the time being. No wonder he had been so defeated and broken. He was sure no one would agree to make a deal with him, and he would be condemned to the life after death.

Evidently Shadow realized that she needed time to brood over her thoughts. The silhouette lightly tugged on her elbow, telling her that they should probably leave. The young woman nodded and stayed silent, letting the two beings walk back with her to her own bedroom.

Once there again Mabel flopped down on her bed, imaging she was now wearing her favorite flannel pyjamas. Both beings left the brunette to her thoughts. But what she snapped to the demon replayed in her mind ower again, a long with the events she had witnessed, she only began to feel worse.

* * *

Meanwhile, in his own room, Dipper brooded over his own thoughts. He had been writing down a time line of events up until this point, not so much to help deduce something, but to organize his own mind. Even after what he estimated to be at least three days in the dreamscape, it still felt as if no time had truly passed.

He got the idea that time and orders of events became scrambled the longer one spent here. There was something surreal, logic-deyfying about it, so, he was chronologically ordering significant events in order to keep himself from slipping up.

But so far he had only managed to write down one date, the first time Bill had shown up. After that everything just seemed to be completely blank to him. The twin stared down at the almost empty page, trying to sort things but to no avail. The man sighed, he would try and remember it later.

Maybe a walk would help him clear his thoughts. He stood up and left his room, blinking in the dim black and grey of the gloomy halls. To his surprise, Bill was standing outside of his sister's room, apparently deep in thought as he stared at the door. The young man cleared his throat, not wanting to catch the demon by surprise at an even more inopportune time. The blond jumped, but quickly tucked away the alarm and hint of embarrassment he was displaying.

"How long have we been here for?" Dipper asked.

"Four days or so in human years." The man replied.

"Or so? You don't know for sure either?"

"Not any more." He brusquely explained.

There was a tense silence between them for a moment. Dipper wondered if it had anything to do with him interrupting the demon's thoughts as he stood outside Mabel's bedroom door.

"You know, I don't think we've ever had a conversation that didn't start with me asking you a question."

"That wasn't a question." The demon pointed out. "But you're right. We haven't. I guess it comes with having access to so many answers."

"But you never answer any of my questions." Dipper said.

"Because you're too nosy for your own good kid."

Dipper was not crazy about being called a kid. He was manly now! And he was going in to grade thirteen come the next school year! He even had stubble!

"I'm not a kid!" He protested, crossing his arms.

"You're right." The blond said thoughtfully. "Compared to the grand scheme of things really, you're only the half-formed electron of an atom, of the cell forming an embryo."

"Hey!" He protested once more.

"It's the truth." He shrugged.

"Well we still practically look the same age! You barely look a day over twenty!"

"I certainly don't feel like it." He muttered in reply, gesturing to his patched eye.

Dipper looked at him with a hint of concern. He had never found out the full extent of what the tourists had done to him in the mud that day. Could he be more injured than he was letting on? The again, it hardly concerned him, and there was no real reason for him to pry either. The last thing he wanted was the demon snapping at him for thinking he cared about his well being or something.

"You've got that look again." Bill stated.

"What look?"

"That one you always have when you're about to ask a bunch of questions I'll refuse to answer." The blond replied, holding up a mirror to his face.

The young man gave a sigh of exasperation, as did his reflection.

"You're killing me here Pine Tree! I can't just give away the secrets of the universe! Well, I can just give them away technically, but I choose not to."

"I wasn't going to ask about the secrets of the universe." He mumbled, knowing that was exactly what he wanted to ask.

"Of course you weren't. Just the meaning of life, if there is a force even higher than me, the secret ingredient in Pitt Cola, the real end of the world, if I'm really made of candy. The usual."

"When has someone ever asked if you were made of candy?"

"Let's just say I will never go in to the Summerween store next time they have piñatas on sale."

"I..." Dipper faltered. "Don't even know how to answer that."

"Good. That means you can stop asking me annoying questions as well. "

They were both silent for a moment. Bill seemed to be thinking something over. Already he was tired of the constant question asking from Dipper. There had to be something he could do to get him to keep quiet! While he doubted his sister would appreciate if he duct taped over his mouth, there were other ways...

Cupping his hands, a magic eight ball landed in them, the triangular die facing him on a blank side, only an eye was visible on it. The demon, satisfied with this handed it to his temporary ally. He took it curiously, looking over what appeared to be, and really was just a normal magic eight ball. It was the exact kind of thing Stan sold in the Mystery Shack. He shook it a few times, but always landed on the same outcome.

"Hey! This only says try again later!" The twin exclaimed.

"Exactly. It's just like talking to the real me minus the headache!"

"Great." The young man sarcastically replied.

"I'm glad ya' like it."

Dipper merely shook his head and rolled his eyes. The young man wandered off down one of the halls, muttering something to himself. Now Bill was left free to resume pacing outside of Mabel's door, still debating on his next move in the plan.


	11. Chapter XI

**Poor Stan! We finally get to see what the old man's going through in this chapter. Don't worry for him too much, things aren't as hopeless as they often times like to seem.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Bill waited until he was certain Dipper was gone before resuming his pacing outside of Mabel's room. Finally with a deep breath, and the reassurance that he could pull off a good show, he knocked on the door.

"Yes?" The brunette hesitantly asked from the other side of the door.

"It's me." The blond replied, making sure to exaggerate the sigh that followed.

"What do you want?" She asked, a nervous edge in her voice.

"To talk. And apologize."

Mabel slowly turned open the door to her bedroom, admitting him inside. The young woman sat down on the edge of her bed and carefully smoothed out a few wrinkles in the magenta and peppermint striped duvet, taking care to avoid his eyes.

The demon allowed a curious glance around the room. Everything had taken shape on her own personal preferences, so he had no idea what it would look like. Really, he was surprised the room was not filled from top to bottom with glitter, but maybe she had toned that down a little over the years. He would even go as far to say that the room was nice, but clearly in Mabel's taste.

A pink and green theme, particularly with stripes. It made him feel like he was looking at candy rather than a piece of furniture. To complement it was a darker, almost black wood, making up the wainscoting, the floorboards, a small desk with two chairs, along with the rounded head and baseboards of her bed. Gold was also placed in splashes where it needed to be as well.

The blond curiously noted that she also had a window seat, overlooking something. He had never come across a window in his mind before, and curious as to what was seen on the outside. On her bed, the young woman had a few pillows in different shapes and sizes, matching the covers of course. He could picture Mabel flopping down in to them and practically being buried alive by them when the time called for it.

This brought Bill back to his senses. Shaking his head slightly and fixing his hat, the blond returned his attention back to her. The young woman had her arms crossed as if she was ready to defend herself once more, but she still remained looking anywhere but at him.

"So ummm... Nice room ya' got here." He awkwardly began, unsure of how Mabel would take his presence.

"Thanks." She brusquely replied.

This was not good. It just showed him how much she was still upset with him. He was really going to have to work harder towards his goal. The demon made a mental note to watch what things he said registered and left marks with her.

"I was honestly expecting a lot more hot pink and glitter." The man feebly attempted to joke.

This awarded him with a half-hearted glare that Mabel was probably hoping would intimidate him. Bill did not need to fake the wince, although his was for reasons different than what she thought.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you." She quietly apologized, "I really shouldn't have said that, and I really don't know where it came from. You were just being so-"

Mabel made a strangling gesture with her hands.

"Irritating?" He supplied.

She nodded. The man swallowed, realizing he would have to suck it up an apologize in return. Mentally crossing his fingers, the blond replied;

"I'm sorry as well for being so aggravating and pushy about it, along with acting like such a hormonal teenager."

Mabel was quiet for a moment, then stuck out her hand and softly responded;

"Apology accepted."

Shaking hands with her, he mimicked;

"Apology accepted."

The hostile yet guilty air Mabel held to herself lightened.

"You said you were acting like a hormonal teenager?"

"That's how I've been feeling." He shrugged.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She gently probed.

Did he want to talk about it?! What?! Was he some love-sick fifteen year-old girl at a slumber party? He couldn't just talk about his feelings like a mere-

"Yes." He softly decided.

Mabel was not oblivious to the expressions flashing across his face as he thought. Ranging from anger and haughtiness, to an actual thoughtful decision. She didn't want to set him off, right after they had just made amends.

What did she do when she wanted to talk, but not with other people? She was a natural born chatter box, and it always felt better to talk it out with something. She wasn't the type to write it down like in a diary, and maybe he could be the same as well. But what would he be willing to talk to? She often asked Waddles about plans or schemes she had, usually involving Dipper and Stan, but her childhood buppet was always helpful as well...

"Here! This will help!" She decisively said, holding up an Imaginary Bear-O.

Bill screamed and felt backwards on to her bed. What was that thing?! It was horrifying! The demon found himself staring in to the glazed plastic eyes of Mabel's beloved buppet. It seemed to be a bear of some sort, wearing overalls. But it was falling apart, only threads keeping it together. It's teeth and bulging eyeballs were disturbing to say the least. And it's arms outstretched in a hug were freaky as well.

"What's wrong?" The brunette innocently asked, not understanding his reaction.

"T-that thing is horrifying." He shuddered.

"What?! You're crazy! Bear-O's harmless!"

To prove her point she tightly hugged th bear puppet. One of it's eyeballs fell off and rolled around, then stopped as it face in his direction. Bill did not like where this was going.

"No. No way. Absolutely not. Non. Negative. Nyet! Nope! Nien! How ever you say it in Latin! I am not touching that thing! Get it away from me, I don't want to see it. Forget it."

"Come on! Just talk it out with him!" She pleaded.

"No." He firmly responded, crossing his arms.

"Pretty please with Smile Dip, bacon bits, chocolate sprinkles, pizza, cherries, Burrito Bites, caramel sauce, anchovies, and-"

"That's a lot of unhealthy food. But the answer is still no. Just because you add food in your pleas doesn't I'm going to change my mind. "

"Not even if I added, rainbow sprinkles?" She bribed.

"No. They're not even that tasty either! They're just little bits of nothing that get caught in your throat!" He sighed in exasperation.

Mabel looked at him in confusion.

"How would you know if you don't have a-" Mabel paused, realizing something with a gigantic smile. "Ha! You've eaten a cup cake before!"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"It has everything to do with this!" She exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter. All food tastes really gross and sugary to me."

"How do you know?"

He waved a hand, imagining a cookie, he handed it to Mabel. She took a bite, but spat it out right away as a flavour she hoped to never taste again met her tongue. Smile Dip.

"That can't be right."She muttered with a frown.

She imagined her own cookie, and took a bite out of it. It tasted like a regular chocolate chip cookie! How could that be possible? Shoving the cookie over to him, she stated;

"Try some."

"I can't just-"

He was cut off as Mabel suddenly shoved the cookie in to his mouth. He shot her a dirty look before chewing and swallowing. An expression of pure amazement and confusion washed over his face as he did. He took the other cookie Mabel was holding and wolfed it down as well.

"How is that possible?" The blond mused to himself.

"Try imaging something else." Mabel suggested.

An apple. When he bit in to it, the fruit tasted like the cookies he had just eaten. Then, when Mabel handed her own to him, it was different. Sort of bitter, yet still sweet.

"You didn't really have a sense of taste before did you?" The brunette asked.

He was about to retort something back to her when he realized she was not trying to mock him, she was thinking.

"No." He honestly replied.

"So, if you don't know what things taste like when you imagine them, it tastes like what you taste when you're tasting nothing. But because I know what most foods taste like, I can imagine them with flavour." She slowly deduced, sounding like her brother as she did.

The demon shrugged. As far as he knew, it made sense. Now Mabel looked at Bill in concern. She knew the man was tall, and rather lean, but by how much? Was he slowly starving himself? She couldn't tell because he was wearing his jacket, which of course obscured everything. He even wore gloves, leaving it impossible for her to get an ideal picture.

"When was the last time you ate something? Other than this that is." She asked.

"A year ago." He nonchalantly answered.

Mabel gasped.

"A year! You must be starving!" The twin exclaimed thinking back to how eagerly he finished off both cookies and the apple.

Again he shrugged.

"I just imagined that I wasn't hungry."

"You have to eat! You can't just imagine other wise!" Mabel scolded

"Why? It's not like I'm going to..."Bill faded off, realizing what he was going to say.

The man huffed in annoyance and frustration. He flopped back down on to Mabel's bed staring up at the ceiling of her room.

"I hate this." He said more to himself than to Mabel. "I barely understand this stupid being human thing. It's horrible."

"Did somebody say, _barely _?!"

* * *

_Ring!_

"Soos! Get the phone!"

_Ring!_

"Soos! Pick it up!"

_Ring!_

"Soos!"

But as Stan did not receive a reply, he got out of bed and reached for the landline on the other side of his room. Begging to some upper force that it was not the hydro company again, asking about his tax frauds, he picked up the phone. It was not them, it was someone worse.

"What?"

"Hey Uncle Stanford! How are Dipper and Mabel doing?"

Stan felt his mouth go dry, and his throat start to ache. His heart began to pound at the mention of his missing great-nephew and great-niece. Hearing his nephew's voice over the static in the phone, he felt his face go pale. Clearing his throat, he prepared himself for a difficult conversation.

"T-They're good. "He lied.

"That's good to hear! Do you mind if I talk to them?"

This was not good. This was even worse. This was bad, so bad. If their parents found out what happened to Dipper and Mabel... This was really, really bad. With a small plan in mind, he shuffled over to his desk and began to sort through the cluttered mess, searching for something as he spoke.

"Umm, sorry kiddo. Dipper's out with some gal' and Mabel's gone to the movies."

"At six o'clock in the morning?" Mr. Pines skeptically asked.

"Well you know, time differences and stuff." Stan tried to wave off with a laugh.

Relief spread through him as he found the thing he had been looking for on his desk. He just prayed to some sort of higher force that the phone connection was choppy enough for his idea to work.

"Stan, is there something you're not telling me? Is Mabel out with a boy?"

Fumbling with a tape recorder on his desk and trying to find a certain track, the con man fibbed;

"What? No! I made sure to chase away any guys that asked her out! In fact, here she is right now!"

Pressing the play button on the recorder, Mabel's voice said;

"Hey Grunkle Stan!"

"Can I talk to her then?" His nephew asked.

"Oh, what's that? I can't hear you! I'm going through a tunnel! I'll talk to you later bye!"

Stan slammed down the phone and heaved out a great sigh. That was almost too close. What was he going to do?


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello my little minions, the Mistress of all Evil here! Well, I've been thinking, and speaking to my reflection (She's a good listener!) and debating with myself for a while now, and after asking a friend, I decided that this story should go on hiatus. Now before you freak out on me, please let me give a short explanation. **

**My interest in writing this is startig to fade, chapters are starting to feel like chores rather than enjoyable. I really don't feel much depth or emotion in it, the whole story is just so cold. Now by no means am I going to stop writing, but I think it's best if this story has a very long break. **

**I want to do something a little more different, stray from my usual path of MaBill and maybe focus on Dipper who I often unceremoniously kill/maim/traumatize/turn in to a jerk in nearly all of my MaBill stories. I'll still be updating my one shot galla for the pairing, but beyond that I think I'm going to come to a halt on publishing any big project stories. After finishing Reality I need to give my muse a rest and plan things out more. But without farther ado, I leave you with what little I had writen for the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Dipper snorted to himself, staring down at the useless eight ball in his palm. He continued to try and get a different answer out of the supposedly one-sided ball, but it always landed on the same frustrating answer!

_Try again later._

"Araaaahg! You worthless cube of glass! Why don't you just die?!" The young man snarled, furiously shaking the infuriating ball.

Glaring down at the murky black-blue water and yellow die hidden inside, the triangle flipped on it's sides a few times before landing on it's answer.

_I'm not a cube you imbecile._

"Wha-?" Dipper nearly dropped the magic eight ball, but with a little fumbling, he caught it.

The triangle spun around widly, then landed on it's new reply to him.

_Watch it butter-fingers!_

"How are you able to answer me now?" The twin wondered, shaking the ball.

_You asked me a question genius._

"Great, a paperweight with an attitude." Dipper muttered.

_Hey!_

"That wasn't a question!" The man protested, shaking the magic eight ball.

_So?_

"I guess Bill wasn't lying said that it was like talking to him."

_Why do you think he handed me off to you? From the goodness of his stone-dead heart?_

"It can't be stone-dead." He pointed out, shaking the magic eightball. "He'd die."

_Figure of speech Pine Tree._

At the mention of the name Diper groaned and slapped a hand to his was no escaping that stupid nick name! Was it because of his last name, the hat he wore? Was it supposed to be demeaning or something? He had no idea why Bill insisted on the stupid thing! And now this stupid magic eight ball decided to join in!

"Not you too!" He groaned, viciously shaking the die wildly skittered around the cloudy liquid Iinside of the ball before the triangle landed on a different answer.

_Try again later._

"Araaaaaagh!"


End file.
